Canadian Standard
by Cup of Cherry Tea
Summary: NETCAN High School AU. Lars van Rijn never intended to fall in love with the Canadian; nor did he intend to end up in a school full of hormonal foreigners. But things never quite go as planned do they? Rating may change.
1. Chapter 1

Sunlight streamed into the room, the arms of light illuminating the face of a teenage boy with gentle wavy hair that fell just below his chin and pale skin that was devoid of any blemishes. His slender body draped in a baggy shirt with a maple leaf design and plain boxers that were too loose on his boyish hips. The sun's fingers clawed his delicate eyes open, revealing pure lavender irises, still glazed over with lethargy. As he reached for his pair of black thick rimmed glasses he noticed the figure looming over him from the doorway.

"So you're up then Mattie," a tall well toned boy in only pyjama bottoms gently said "would you like breakfast or anything, you could cook if you really want. We all know my cooking isn't quite 'Canadian standard'" the boy lightly joked.

"Is this you're subtle way of telling me you want me to cook?" the Canadian chided before yawning "besides, how long have you been standing there?" the Canadian said in an accusing manner.

"You know me all too well Mattie. Anyways, I only got here about a minute ago, I'm not _that_ much of a creeper" the taller boy said with a mock hurt expression.

The Canadian rose from the bed and stretched clicking his back and unceremoniously yawned again before walking up to the taller boy in the doorway and lightly punching him on his arm. "I'll only cook if you put a shirt on; you know I'm not one for my friends walking around half naked."

The other boy flinched slightly at the friend part, but gritted his teeth. "Wouldn't you be happier if I just took off the pyjama bottoms instead and go around fully naked? Besides, it's my house; shouldn't I be free to walk around in whatever I please?" the boy challenged.

His only reply was a roll of the eyes and a nudge to the shoulder. The taller boy watched, smirking as the Canadian unintentionally sauntered down the stairs, making the shirtless boy's heart beat a bit too fast and makes the blood rush places that it probably shouldn't.

The boy broke into a reverie, remembering how he got into this whole situation in the first place.

* * *

"_Lars, sorry, we know that you don't want to leave here… but we have to for my work, you'll find friends in America, you're a smart boy you know better than anyone how important it is that I take this job" Lars's father began his voice wavering slightly at seeing the hurt expression on his son's face "we're leaving the Netherlands in a month your Mum has started packing all your stuff, and… just… I'm sorry."_

_ Lars couldn't take anymore, he stood up from the table harshly, the chair clattering to the floor his parents faces solemn as Lars hurled abuse at them in Dutch, English and any other language he could think of. He ran up the stairs and, locked himself in his room and let the tears stream down his face as he slumped to the floor. He grabbed his iPod and headphones from the bedside table and put on his favourite song, letting his head lean back against his door. After a few songs the tears stopped falling and soon he was in a deep slumber, forgetting everything that happened that day._

_

* * *

_

"_Welcome to your new home!" his mother announced too excitedly "do you want me to show you to your new room?"_

"_Ugh" Lars only grunted in reply. He followed his mother up to a decent sized room on the second floor of their new, slightly lavish, house in America. He stared at the room, taking in the plain white walls and the white carpeted floor. The room would become a canvas for his possessions which he kept from the Netherlands. He knew this house would never be a home to him, but he could at least try to surround himself with things that make him happy. He sighed. The room fell into silence before he heard shouting and an airy laugh from outside his window. He floated across to the window, entranced by the laugh he heard._

"_Hey Mattie!" a blonde haired blue eyed boy with tan skin yelled, whilst pulling a silly face and telling a joke to another boy… Lars stared as the other boy laughed that same airy laugh as before, but that wasn't what drew Lars to him, it was his looks, he had stunning flaxen hair that rolled down to just below his chin and eyes that shone like amethyst and such beautiful skin like a child. His smile brightened up the area around him, making him seem angelic. It was at that moment Lars was almost happy he'd moved to America. This boy was the most beautiful thing he'd seen in his whole 15 years of being alive. A small smile graced his lips as he watched the two boys, both about the same age as him, laugh and tell jokes in the garden of the house opposite him. He just about caught their names. 'Mattie' and Alfred, he would remember those names, he decided. _

_ He started strewing all his belongings across his room, and moving in the pieces of furniture that had already arrived into appropriate places. He started folding his clothes and placed them in his large wardrobe. He put fresh bedding on his bed and pulled up the blinds, drowning the room in light. Lars felt satisfied with what he'd done so far, and so lay on his bed and bunged his headphones in losing himself in the music, falling into a light sleep, dreaming about a certain angelic looking boy. He was awoken by his father lightly shaking him to wake him up, before telling him that lunch was ready downstairs. Lars growled in annoyance, making his father chuckle slightly. Lars grabbed the hoodie that was hanging on his door and threw it on before plodding down the stairs to the dining room._

"_Have you finished unpacking sweetie?" his mother cooed._

"_I have two more boxes to unpack, but I think it's just school stuff, so I don't have to worry about it for the next few weeks" Lars stated bluntly, still rather annoyed at being woken from his wonderful dream, about that wonderful boy, with the wonderful- Lars stopped himself from getting to far into his dream again._

_ Lars grabbed some bread, meat and cheese from the plates on the table, along with some salad, half listening to what his parents where telling him about his new school, something about it being an international school, and apparently school started on the second of September, so he had two weeks or so to sort everything out and maybe make some friends ('With the boy across the street' Lars had added in his head.), and he also learnt that he would have to wear a uniform. Lars stopped and thought about this, he had to wear a uniform? His last school just required him to wear smart clothes, but a proper uniform was almost alien to him, Lars sighed heavily, this couldn't get any worse could it?_

"_Oh, and I was talking to the woman across the street, she has two children your age you know," Lars's mother began, Lars perked up "and apparently they both go to Hetalia academy as well! Even though one of her sons, Alfred I believe his name was, isn't technically an international student, he got a scholarship because of his sporting achievements, and her other son, Matthew, is from Canada, their parents are divorced, and so Matthew spent time living in Canada with his father, but… his father apparently turned to alcohol and so their mother regained custody of Matthew… sorry dear I must be boring you, you can get down from the table if you want.."_

"_No I- it's OK I might as well know a bit about my probably new classmates." Lars said, sounding a bit happier, though his curiosity about Matthew was now piqued._

"_That's the spirit! It's nice to see you being positive about this!" his father chimed in._

_ Lars only rolled his eyes._

_ He finished his meal and put his plate and cutlery in the dishwasher, then thanked his mother and went up to his room again. He grabbed his laptop that was residing on his desk and brought it to his bed he flipped it open and pressed the power button; he hummed a song and tapped his feet as it loaded up. When it was all setup, he went on to Skype, swiftly typing in his username and password. Lars's eyes scanned down the list of the people online, spotting one of his friends, Bella, he clicked the name. Bella was one of his good friends from the Netherlands, she moved from Belgium when she was about seven and although they fought all the time, they were close, almost like siblings, in their friendship group there was three of them Lars, Bella and Jean. Jean had moved to the Netherlands from Luxembourg and his parents were very well off. The three of them were all popular at school, who wouldn't want to be friends with the good looking trio?_

"_Salut Lars!" Bella chimed._

"_Hey Bella, how've you been? I know it's hard living without me" Lars joked, only succeeding in making Bella scoff into the webcam._

"_Yes, I mean it's terrible, I've fallen into such a terrible depression without you around!" she mocked in a melodramatic way._

"_Pfft, you know you love me. How's Jean?" Lars added._

"_He's good, but he's really stressed out because of those higher tier exams he chose to take as extras, sometimes he's too smart for his own good…" Bella said._

_ Lars lightly laughed, he knew the boy pushed himself to the limit, he learnt how to speak four languages fluently, and was easily the smartest boy in the school. "As interesting as I find Jean's inhumane exam endeavours interesting, I came to talk to you about something."_

"_What is it mon cher?" Belgium questioned in a motherly tone._

"_Well, you know a while ago I said that I… you know, like guys…" Lars began, knowing that only Jean and Bella knew about the fact he was gay, "I think I found a boy today that I could describe as nothing less than… een engel." Lars said, allowing some Dutch to slip out._

_ Bella's eyes lit up, she was always a bit worried about Lars, he never really wanted to find a girlfriend, so when she confronted him about it and he admitted he was gay, well, she was happy for him. He also told her that he could hardly find any guys he liked… you could only imagine how happy she was after what Lars had just told her, "Mon cher! I'm so happy for you! Do you know his name? What school he goes to? How old he is?" she questioned a bit too over excitedly._

"_His names Matthew, he goes to my school, he looks about my age and he has a brother called… Alfred I think." Lars began, "I haven't actually spoken to him, but I've seen him, and my mum has started talking to their mum."_

"_Stalker" Bella said between coughs, "Merde it's that late already! I have to leave for school now Lars, but listen to me, when you go back to school you should go for it. You deserve a good guy" she said with a motherly tone._

"_Thank you Bella… have a nice day at school, I know it'll be hard without me but…" Lars began, faking melancholy._

"_Yeah sure, life's so hard without you. Anyway good luck, bye!" Bella said rushing slightly before signing out._

"_Err, bye?" Lars said. The corners of his lips twitched up, making his face look gentler. Well, at least he knew he had the support of someone, but doubts came to his mind, he didn't even know about Matthew's personality and it wasn't all that likely he was gay. Lars sighed, and stumbled down the stairs in a daze too see if dinner was ready._

"_Oh Lars, I heard you talking to someone in the room, was it Jean or Bella?" his mother asked._

"_Bella: from what I can gather, Jean is too busy with his exams" Lars stated._

_ Lars's mother laughed airily before saying "He always did work too hard that boy… unlike you." she said playfully._

"_You know I'm never going to be a perfect son, but come one, I haven't turned out too badly" Lars counteracted._

"_Well you are half me" Lars's mother assured. It was true Lars did look a lot like his mother; they both had the same green-grey eyes and pale brown hair, along with very prominent cheekbones and long necks. Both were very attractive, and many a person had told them, along with quoting the family resemblance._

"_Well, the food will be ready soon. Could you set the table?" his mother asked sweetly._

_ Lars nodded before collecting three plates from the cupboard, along with three glasses and three sets of cutlery and setting them out on the table. He then hooked his ankle around the chair leg and pulled it out from under the table before flopping onto it. Just then his father strode into the room and loudly announced his hunger before hugging the woman in the kitchen, and Lars could only watch on, where most teenage boys would be gagging and telling their parents to 'knock it off', Lars had to admit that he found it… endearing. He thought of himself as a bit of a softie for romance. But when you're ravenously hungry, romance can wait._

"_Food first please. Then you can continue being lovey-dovey" Lars reminded them. They giggled in unison like loved up teenagers, making Lars's lips quirk upwards very slightly._

_ Food was served and the usual banter was filling the dining room. Considering they were a small family, they could really talk for all it's worth. Gradually the conversation wound down to just a quiet chatter._

"_So Lars, what are you planning to do for the rest of the summer? You do have two weeks to spare" his father said._

"_Nothing really, I suppose getting my school uniform, but that's about it, I think I'll spend the next two weeks getting used to just being here," Lars said, "I was planning on making some new friends, but then again the rest would do me good…" Lars said having just finished eating._

_ He stood up and placed his eating utensils and plate in the sink telling his parents that he was going to sleep, kissing his mother on her cheek and awkwardly hugging his father._

_

* * *

_

_ And thus, two weeks and a new uniform later, Lars began to embark on the chain reaction of events that lead him to meeting the Canadian across the street. Well, it was never destined to be easy was it?_

_ Lars walked down the corridor of his new school, shifting in what he saw was an awkward ensemble of chequered trousers, a blue blazer, a white shirt and a tie. Somehow he'd wormed his way out of letting his mother buy him a sweater vest, something just seemed wrong with the whole idea of it. He flicked through the planner he'd received from the office at the entrance of the school. He found out his form room was on the far side of the school, and due to a lack of a map, he wasn't getting any further towards it. The bustles of students surrounding him weren't helping with his sudden loss of direction._

_ Lars strode confidently up to a random person standing at their locker and tapped them on the back, "Hey, do you know where classroom… err, 5b is?" Lars questioned, or rather, interrogated the poor student._

"_H-hai, that room is also my own form room. If you care to follow me" the coal haired boy stuttered in broken English. Lars quickly realised he had frightened the poor boy, he tended to do that a lot actually, he was a pretty well built guy, muscled and a good few inches over six foot, and he's been told by his friends that when he was angry he scowled, and God was he angry right now, loosing your way on the first day of school, could he get any cooler?_

"_Eto, we're here, this is room 5b, I have never seen you around the school premises, am I correct in presuming that you are new?" the boy, who Lars guessed was Japanese said._

"_Yes, I've just moved over from the Netherlands because of my dad's work" Lars answered bluntly._

"_Ah, hai, I moved here for my dad's work also, but I moved a few years ago" the Japanese boy added._

_ Lars was about to say something when a loud crashing of the classroom door broke the almost hushed talking the room, "THE HERO IS HERE!" a loud blonde haired boy with blues eyes and tan- wait, wasn't that-_

"_Alfred! Keep your voice down, it's too early in the morning for you to be yelling like that, eh" a boy said in a barely audible voice. Lars just stood there dumbfounded. Matthew. He was in my class. Matthew… was in my class._

"_Oh hi, I didn't see ya' there! You look new, are ya' new?" Alfred started excitedly, "Wait! I thought I recognised ya', ain't ya' the Dutch guy that moved across the street from us?"_

_ In all honesty Lars was shocked, firstly at the American's poor grammar and secondly at his complete brashness about asking, apparently manners were too much to ask for. Then Lars's angel saved him from looking like a complete idiot, "Alfred, it's rude to just ask that, and talk properly, eh"_

_ Somehow Lars regained his composure and answered the original question, "Yeah, I moved here from the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago," Lars began, "it's weird and I'm not quite used to it here yet"_

"_I know what you mean, eh" Matthew said "I found it really hard moving here from Canada"_

_ Just as Lars was about to create a reply Alfred had to yell out, "Oh! The Netherlands, isn't that that country with the weed and the prostitutes?"_

_ Lars decided that he hated the American for that._

_ If it wasn't for the fact that Matthew was standing right there Lars could've quite happily punched the American for insulting his country. He could've punched him really hard. He could've punched him right where it hurts._

"_Alfred… don't just say stuff about other people's country like that. How would you like it if someone said that America was full of fat people and idiots, eh?" Matthew said._

"_B-BUT AMERICA IS AWESOME!" Alfred countered._

"_The Netherlands is awesomer" Lars said smirking._

_ Alfred was shocked, no country could be awesomer than America, "Is not."_

"_Is so."_

"_Is not."_

"_Is so."_

"_IS NOT!"_

"_Oh, it so is."_

"_Is-" _

"_Stop! Please, I'm sorry that my brother insulted you… umm, Lars, that's your name, right, eh?" Matthew said, obviously slightly panicked that his brother was making enemies barely five minutes into the school day._

"_Yeah, that's my name." Lars said awkwardly. 'Smooth Lars, smooth' he thought in his head._

"_Err, well my name's Matthew, and as you can guess, my slightly stupid brother is called Alfred," Matthew introduced, "even if you've made a bit of an enemy with my brother, I hope we can be friends eh."_

_ The bell rang symbolising everyone to sit down, Lars didn't know what to do, and he just stared at the Canadian, pleading for help._

"_You can sit next to me. I sit quite near the back, are you okay with that eh?" the Canadian asked quietly._

"_Yeah it's okay, as long as I don't have to sit next to your brother and get bombarded with jokes about clogs and windmills I'm good" the Dutch boy said, making the Canadian giggle that angelic giggle._

"_When I finally saw him after coming home from Canada all I got was jokes about Mounties and maple syrup…" Matthew sighed, "It's not that he means to be offensive, he's just… misinformed eh."_

"_You know, I couldn't tell" Lars joked in a very sarcastic manner._

_ Matthew snorted cutely and continued, "Weirdly though he knows a lot about the English culture, as in he can get his head around the fact the there is more to England than scones, the Queen and drinking tea."_

"_Does he have some sort of a weird obsession with England then?" Lars asked._

"_Pfft. No, his boyfriend is English, and before they started dating Alfred decided to learn everything he could about England to win the boy over, it was sort of cute eh" the smaller boy explained._

"_Wait wha- your brother's gay?" well, that was a bit of a shock if Lars was being truthful._

"_Yeah, most of the guys, and girls, here are gay or at least bi. If you have a problem with that… well you're going to have problems here eh" the boy stated almost boldly._

"_Well I'm gay," Lars said, not intending it to sounds so blunt, "so I guess it's not a problem then."_

"_It appears so" Matthew said, he was smirking the tiniest bit, which surprised Lars, seeing the innocent boy with a face like that._

"_What about yourself?" Lars asked._

"_Err… the same eh" Matthew said nervously, loosing the smirk. 'Well problem number one ticked of the list then' Lars thought to himself._

_ The teacher entered the room; he was a tall man, obviously of Germanic descent, with long blonde hair that was tied up and ice blue eyes. They checked attendance and then the teacher continued to explain the rules of the school and gave everyone their timetables._

_ So yes, Lars did take a bit of a peek at Matthew's schedule; it was almost identical save for two or three subjects._

"_This is great eh! We have almost all the same subjects," Matthew said, "I guess we should take this as sign that we should be friends eh" Matthew said smiling up at Lars._

_ Now, Lars, as much as a romantic as he was, never really believed in 'that-warm-fuzzy-feeling', or at least until the little Canadian had said that, "Yeah, so I guess I just made my first friend here then" he sighed in an exaggerated manner and continued, "well that's the first hurdle over" the Canadian giggled, knowing as well as anyone that even though it was a joke, that there was an element of truth in it._

"_Well as people may've noticed we have a new student in the class, his name is…" the teacher looked down at the paper, "Lars van Rijn. I hope you all treat him well. Oh, and before you all ask, he's Dutch."_

_ People in the class just smiled and said welcome in what Lars presumed was their first language. "Considering there are no lessons today, class is dismissed" the Germanic man said, much to the delight of the class._

_ Lars, Alfred and Matthew were all packing up in the back corner when Alfred leaned towards Lars and quickly whispered in his ear, "What did you do to make Mattie talk so much? None of the people in his school can make him talk that much, you must have, like, a talent bro or something because I've never seem my brother talk and laugh like that except when he's with me, his awesome brother," Matthew started looking worriedly at the two so Alfred quickly wrapped it up, "but it's good to see my little brother make a friend, you better promise to be good to him."_

"_I promise to look after Matthew" Lars said defiantly._

_ Lars wasn't going to break that promise._

_

* * *

_

"Lars! Are you coming down for pancakes in a minute?" the Canadian yelled from the kitchen.

"Yeah, give me a second though!" Lars yelled back. The memories in his head didn't stop then; he began remembering why he had the boxer-and-shirt clad Canadian in his house in the first place.

* * *

"_Lars the phone is ringing! Pick it up; I'm sorting something out…" Lars's mother told him. He ran to the living room and picked up the phone._

"_Hello?"_

"_Hello Lars dear! Mrs. Jones here, I know this is a bit sudden but, I'm just calling to ask whether Matthew could stay round for a week or so while I go away on a business trip. Alfred is obviously going to stay with that cutie Arthur and I was wondering if Matthew could stay round yours. It would be from," Lars heard the rustling of paper down the phone, "the thirteenth to the twenty first of May I think it is, would that be okay for you, I hope I'm not hassling you or anything…"_

"_No, it's perfectly alright I'll just check with my Mum…" Lars walked up to his mother and asked her about the whole situation. A wide smile spread across her face, Lars knew she had definitely taking a liking to the Canadian in the few months they'd been friends._

"_Of course, he can stay as long as he needs to!" Lars's mother said, smile still on her face._

_ Lars went back to talking to Mrs. Jones, "My Mum says that's perfectly okay, I can't wait for him to stay over."_

"_Thank you so much dear! You're a lifesaver" Mrs. Jones thanked, "But anyway, I have to go, is it okay if I drop Matthew off tonight? I sort of need to pack…" Mrs. Jones said._

"_I'm sure that'll be fine" Lars said._

"_Oh thank you so much! I'll see you later Lars!" Mrs. Jones said before hanging up. Lars laughed slightly, it was so obvious where Alfred got all his energy from._

_ It was one O'clock, and Lars wasn't expecting his guest over until about seven, so he flopped onto the chair in the living room and watched TV; he quickly started to dose off though when 'Jersey Shore' came on. Lars couldn't care less about it, sleeping would kill of less brain cells than watching that show anyway._

_ For the past few months, the Dutchman's dreams had been plagued by Matthew. Every single dream included Matthew at least once, sometimes he had whole dreams just thinking about what he and Matthew would be like if they were a couple; this dream was no exception._

**"Aaah- Lars" the Canadian moaned as Lars's tongue invaded the smaller boy's mouth, Lars's hand slid up the boy's shirt and played with the nubs it found, "ugh, please Lars!" Matthew begged. Lars lifted the shirt over the boy's head and kissed him passionately again, their tongues danced and the vibrations from both their moans running down their throats. Lars broke away but proceeded to place small kisses down the Canadian's neck and occasionally bite down, causing a strangled moan to escape from the boy. Lars sucked the bite mark, leaving a hickey in it's place, and moved lower down the Canadian's body stroking the sides of his body gently with his hands, making the boy shiver. Lars leant down and licked a trail from the joint of Matthew's neck to his belly button, before kissing the boy's perfectly shaped stomach a few times making the boy giggle. Lars's hand got lower and lower until his hands reached the hem of the boy's trousers…**

_ The doorbell went off, Lars quickly opened his eyes ready to sprint to the front door to open it, until he realised his dream had left an… unfortunate side effect on the teenager. Looking at the clock he realised exactly who was going to be at the door he groaned and shuffled his way to the bathroom whilst yelling at his mother, "Could you get the door mum? I'm really busy."_

"_Sure sweetie, I'll tell Matthew just to go up to your room, okay?" Lars's mother replied._

"_Thank you mum!" and heaven knows how thankful Lars really was for that._

_ After Lars sorted out his personal dilemma he made his way up to the room and found Matthew sitting on his bed, with his back against the head board with his eyes gently closed, he was obviously tired._

"_You've just come back from hockey practice haven't you?" Lars said._

"_Yeah, it was a hard day, but at least I get to spend the rest of the day with you; that'll help me relax eh" the Canadian said in one long sigh._

_ That Canadian really knew how to make Lars's heart beat faster, "If you want you could just go to sleep now, you look like you need it…"_

"_Can I really? That'd be great… where should I sleep eh?" the Canadian said._

"_You can take the bed, I'll take out an air mattress and spare sheets for myself in a second and I think my mum might be going out tonight so I don't really expect dinner, so I might go to sleep now too" Lars gently replied._

"_Thank you so much eh" Matthew said shyly before quickly giving Lars a gracious hug before starting to get changed._

"_Do you want me to leave while you change?" Lars said with a blush starting to appear as the boy in front of him began to slowly unbutton his shirt._

"_No, it's OK eh" Matthew said, and Lars swore he could hear a smirk in his voice._

_ Lars watched on as Matthew's shirt slipped of his pale shoulders and down to his waist, and saw the boy lean over the bed to grab a maple leaf night shirt, and in the process showed Lars the soft stomach and chest that always snuck their way into his dreams. Then Matthew began to unbuckle his jeans and slowly pulled them down revealing his white boxers and then flicked the jeans off his ankles so they rested atop of his bag of clothes. Matthew then pulled the night shirt over his head and turned to look at Lars._

"_Aren't you getting changed too eh?" Matthew questioned innocently._

"_Err, yeah I just need to go grab my pyjamas" Lars said, almost impressed with himself at being able to make such a coherent sentence after the little 'show' the Canadian had just put on for him. Lars decided just to stick on a pair of pyjama bottoms, the nights were getting much warmer, so a t-shirt would make him too hot during while he slept._

"_I'll be back in a second, I need to change and grab the mattress and sheets" Lars said as he stood up and left the room. He went into the storage room and found the air mattress in an old cardboard box and some spare sheets in the hamper on the far side of the room. He quickly undressed and threw on his pyjama bottoms and on the way back to his room put his discarded clothes in the laundry basket._

_ He walked into the room and found that Matthew had already fallen asleep in his bed (with his glasses still on) and was breathing slowly. Lars pondered how beautiful the boy looked when he slept and leant down to take the glasses off and whisper his goodnight into Matthew's ears, failing to notice the faint twitch of a smile on the other boy's face._

_ Lars tried to set up the air mattress as quietly as possible, but decided it was making too much noise and settled for a half inflated mattress. He placed the sheets on top of the mattress and lay down. He dropped off into yet another Canadian infested dream.  
_

_

* * *

_

"Lars! Do you want pancakes or not? I can't keep them warm forever eh!" the slightly flustered Canadian said breaking his thoughts of the day before.

"I'm just coming now Mattie!" Lars said loudly as he jogged down the stairs.

'_**Hello, my name is Lars van Rijn, I'm 16 years old, and I'm hopelessly in love with my best friend.'**_

_**

* * *

**_

_Author's note;_

Oh God... I wanted this to be a quick, maybe 2,000 word introduction chapter. I ended up with this. *Sobs*

So yes, this is my first proper published fanfiction, is it obvious? I'm so bad at writing; I have a bad habit of very erratic capitalisation of words... Ehehehe...

So should I continue this fanfiction? If yes, should it stay in the third person or switch to first person? (If it goes to first person it'll probably be Lars's point of view.)

(Also sorry if characters are OOC, I'm making the Netherlands so soppy, but it's my head canon! *Cries*)


	2. Chapter 2

The two pyjama clad boys lent their head back against the headboard of Lars's bed: their faces were flushed and the two were breathing heavily.

The two of them had been joking around so much that it wasn't surprising they were worn out; it was just the way things went with the two of them. Although they had quite a large circle of friends between them, Lars and Matthew always remained particularly close, with people always saying how Lars was a miracle for getting Matthew to open up, talk and express himself more. Matthew was also praised for softening Lars up a bit, and helping to inform him when he was scowling and generally creeping out the other students.

When they started to hang around each other more they began to learn each other's quirks, which was the exact reason they where sprawled across Lars's bed in hysterics.

"I still remember the first time-" Lars began but had to stop to release the pent up laughter, "- I learnt about your love for maple syrup."

Matthew broke down too, all the blood rushing to his cheeks in embarrassment, "I forgot you didn't know about my love for it eh!"

"But your poor pancakes were drowning in the stuff Matthew!" Lars informed exaggeratedly. This cause the Canadians sides to split as he clutched his hips trying to quell the laughter.

"Not as bad as the first time I found you smoking weed from that pipe of yours," Matthew began more reminiscing, "You were as high as a kite, and if I remember correctly, you tried to touch me inappropriately."

"Sorry about that," Lars said seriously; however he quickly burst into more laughter before adding, "I must've thought you were some cute animal or something. If I remember right: that time right you had cat ears."

Matthew couldn't even make a reply as tears of laughter started to prick at his eyes, by this point he was laughing so hard no sound would come out. He quickly collected himself though and added, "I can't imagine how cute I must've looked" Matthew said whilst rolling his eyes.

"Oh my, you were cuter than unicorns, kittens and rainbows!" Lars said in a synthetic, overtly cute voice, usually reserved for little girls. This caused the other boy in the room to giggle in the same way that made Lars fall in love with him in the first place.

"Oh- I remember that time when I first heard you speaking Dutch…" Matthew said, almost exploding from laughter half way through the sentence.

"You thought I was choking" Lars deadpanned.

This just caused the purple eyed boy to laugh even harder at the memory, and even the extremely patriotic Lars had to snicker a bit at it; he was willing to put aside some of his national pride for the other boy's sake.

"Can you recount the glorious time when I heard you speak French to your cousin?" Lars said with a grin and one eyebrow arched.

"Just be happy you didn't know what we were talking about, you know how bad Francis can get" Matthew said, a shudder shook his spine just thinking about it.

"I could gather parts of it. Sort of wish I couldn't actually" Lars said before lightly poking Matthew on the arm. They both turned to look each other in the eye, the tension building before both broke down with laughter with their heads in their knees.

After a small eternity of laughing Lars could've sworn he heard small, choked sobs coming from Matthew. If Lars didn't know better he would have thought that the Canadian was crying unless… 'Oh God he is crying!'

"Mattie, are you okay?" Lars said reaching a hand to the Canadian and then placing it on his back, slowly rubbing in circles waiting for Matthew to calm down.

After a good few minutes the smaller of them began to speak, "Thank you Lars, for everything. I know you don't really know what I was like before you moved across the street, but I can safely say I never would have been able to joke like that with any of my other friends; even my brother couldn't make me laugh that much…" Lars just looked down at the Canadian; both had sincere expressions before Lars pulled him into a comforting hug.

They both just sat like that on the bed, Lars's back against the headboard and the Canadian in his arms both revelling in the sudden change of atmosphere. 'I didn't realise that our friendship means that much to him' Lars thought looking down at the boy in his arms, 'this doesn't make anything easier' Lars just let out a shaky breath and closed his eyes for a few minutes until he felt soft mumbling against his chest.

"What was that Matthew?" Lars said shattering the silence. He looked down to see the faintly smiling Canadian in his arms.

"Thank you again… but please take a shower, you're really sticky" Matthew joked.

"It's not my fault you decided to have a maple syrup fight at breakfast!" Lars said, "Besides, more than anything I was shocked you'd waste your precious 'elixir of life'."

The tears on Matthew's cheeks had dried, leaving translucent marks leading from his tear ducts down to the underside of his chin, "Hmm… I could use some maple syrup right now; it always used to cheer me up after crying" Matthew mused.

"What and I don't?" Lars said feeling slightly insulted.

"You do eh! But you said yourself about my little 'obsession' with maple syrup" Matthew said, hanging his head a bit in shame that he could've insulted his friend, "Back to the topic at hand though, we both need to take a shower, I feel really sticky, and the tears have dried and it's making my face feel weird" the Canadian said, his bottom lip sticking out a bit in a child-like pout.

"You can use my bathroom then, I'll use my parent's one since they've gone to work," Lars began with hint of a smile at the other boy's expression, "which reminds me; we need to go food shopping later. My parents aren't actually coming home until tomorrow evening because of their work, so we'll have to cook tonight."

"Ah, okay. It'll be fun; we haven't got much else to do today anyway. Will the shops be open on a Sunday though?" Matthew asked.

"I think so," Lars said, "we'll check later."

Lars stared at the clock that read half past eleven. He turned and smiled at the Canadian before grabbing some towels from the hamper just to the left of his door. "You know where the bathroom is right?"

"Yeah, I think so" Matthew replied, the time that continued was filled with a still silence.

"I hope you feel better now, I don't think I've ever seen you so upset…" Lars said before awkwardly walking up to the Canadian and wrapped his arms around the boy's shoulders.

"I'm okay, in fact I haven't cried since I moved here from Canada, it's nice to get it all out I guess," Matthew said with a smile spreading across his face, "At least you're here to comfort me."

"You do make me worry sometimes you know" Lars said after a short silence, lightly karate chopping Matthew on the head.

Matthew didn't verbally reply but gently folded his way out of Lars's vice grip and made his way towards the bathroom, he quickly turned to smile at Lars, the towel he was given covering his only boxer clad lower half.

Lars just smiled and draped the towel around his neck and walked his way down the long corridor to his parent's room, unaware of the purple eyes burning into his back with a loving gaze.

When in his parent's bathroom Lars turned the shower on and adjusted the temperature and then pulled off his pyjama bottoms and boxers in one go and stood under the stream of water, watching as the droplets of water rolled down his body and wondering if the Canadian in the other bathroom was doing the same. 'No Lars, don't think of Matthew in the shower, naked, moaning your name while he touches his… STOP' Lars said in his own inner monologue.

To distract his thoughts he grabbed the shower gel that was resting on the edge of the shower and poured some in his hand, then started rubbing lazily at his arms, legs and torso that were well toned from all his football practice (*). Afterwards he grabbed some of his father's 'manly' shampoo and squirted some into the palm of his hands and started rubbing it in his gel-saturated hair. Lars always spiked up his hair in the same way everyday, in a shape akin to a tulip, however he decided he might not spike it up today, just for a change of pace.

Then he just leant his head back and allowed the water to caress his features before the droplets fell down to the floor of the shower. Deciding he was sufficiently clean he turned the water off and stepped out the shower, grabbing his towel as he did.

He walked over to the mirror in his room and clawed at his chin wondering if he should shave. He made the decision not to, it didn't look too bad. He then took the bar of soap that lay precariously at the edge of the sink and washed his face; he was lucky to have naturally clear skin despite his less then admirable skincare routine. He subsequently squeezed some toothpaste on his finger and brushed his teeth that way; his toothbrush was in the other bathroom, and as much as _he_ wouldn't mind walking in on a dripping wet naked Canadian, the Canadian boy probably wouldn't be quite so keen on the idea.

Reassuring himself that he was now satisfactorily clean, or at least less sticky, Lars made his way back to his bedroom, throwing his boxers and pyjama bottoms in the laundry basket in the process.

Not much could prepare Lars for what he saw when he walked into his room.

A semi-naked, dripping wet Canadian, with only a towel covering his body.

It appeared that the Canadian hadn't noticed Lars, so the Dutch boy just stood there and watched as the boy crouched down to pick up some boxers from his bag, causing the towel to be pulled up a bit, revealing more of the Canadians milky thighs. After retrieving what he needed, Matthew let the towel around his waist drop; and Lars let his jaw drop. He now had a naked, wet Canadian in his bedroom that was completely unaware of his presence: Lars wasn't going to start complaining anytime soon though. Said Canadian began pulling the boxers up his legs, then sank to the ground to rifle through his bag, producing baggy jeans, and plain t-shirt and finally a red hoody.

The smaller boy just stood up and turned around; probably to check the door. Upon spotting Lars in nothing but a towel at the door Matthew's face paled to a point where it was akin to snow. Lars just stood there with his mouth open ready to explain himself.

Both of them just stared at each other; neither spoke.

But then again, what were they to say? Both of them had their best friend half naked and sopping wet in front of them; casual chit-chat was barely appropriate. 'Oh God' Lars thought as he saw a bead of water roll its way down the Canadian's chest, directly over the stomach that he had kissed only yesterday in his dream. The path of the droplet terminated as it got absorbed into the waistband of Matthew's boxers.

"Why are you staring at my crotch Lars eh?" Matthew said quietly and shyly, however it was still enough to break the deafening silence.

This quickly threw Lars off his hypothetical balance as he realised that by following the travel of that single droplet he had ended up staring right at his friend's private area. Lars had to act quickly, so he said the first thing that seemed logical to him, "Your boxers look… pretty" Lars said inelegantly. He almost felt the need to smack his head against the wall, but then again that could just make things worse.

Luckily for him the other boy in the room just laughed, taking the 'eloquent' comment by Lars as a joke. Obviously this was a lucky break for the taller teen who just mumbled a laugh to harmonise with the others.

"If you're going to be a weirdo though I'm going to change out in the corridor," Matthew said, his laughter dying down slightly, "please get some clothes on, I've already explained my policy on friends being naked around me" Matthew continued walking out the door and looking at Lars.

"You have something on your chest" Matthew said before reaching his hand up to Lars chest and brushing something, probably some fluff, off the skin above the boys heart.

"Thanks" Lars said, trying to sound as calm as possible, and much to his surprise succeeding.

Matthew walked out, shutting the door in the process. This left Lars to swiftly choose some appropriate clothes, said clothes where some black tracksuit bottoms a band t-shirt and a white hoody. Lars also grabbed some underwear from the nearby draw and pulled them on quickly, all whilst checking the door to make sure Matthew wasn't doing what he'd just done.

Lars speedily pulled up the boxers and threw on the tracksuit bottoms over the top, afterwards he tugged the band t-shirt over his head and pulled the hoody around his body. This time he checked before walking in on a most likely changing Canadian.

"Are you dressed this time Matthew?" Lars asked with a smile.

"Yes, are you?" Matthew replied.

"I think so" Lars said.

"I'll just have to check then," Matthew said, popping his head round the door, "Good, you actually are dressed."

"You think I'd lie to you" Lars said with a prominent pout.

"Let's get going eh. I can only take so much of your perverted behaviour" Matthew said giving Lars a blunt, emotionless expression.

Lars rolled his eyes and messed up the Canadian's hair while he took the Canadian's wrist and dragged him down the stairs in one swift motion, he then proceeded to grab his coat and a spare one for the Canadian. Lars also weaved his trusted blue and white striped scarf around his neck and tilted his head out of the front door before making a short announcement on the weather.

"It's raining; we're going to need an umbrella" Lars said in a voice that was far too serious to be describing such a trivial thing.

* * *

"Oh, so maybe the shops are open on a Sunday" Matthew said looking up at Lars as he put the umbrella down, finding the height difference between them to be very awkward when it came to holding the umbrella. Lars left his umbrella in the caddy by the shop's door and walked in with Matthew following him.

"I don't have a shopping list, so I'll just get the stuff my parents usually buy" Lars said, the boredom apparent in his voice.

"Why do you sound so bored eh?" Matthew said slightly sadly, "I haven't been food shopping since I was a kid, it'll be fun!"

"Tch, I suppose…" Lars groaned.

"Why are you in such a bad mood all of a sudden? I would've thought that seeing me in my boxers this morning would keep you in a good mood the rest of the day" Matthew said cheekily, probably too cheekily for what Lars was used to, which was probably why his face was turning an interesting shade of red.

"I'm afraid even if you spent the whole day walking around half naked it wouldn't change the fact that I hate the rain with more passion than with which I hate the Spanish" Lars said imitating a English accent much akin to Alfred's boyfriends.

The Canadian just giggled softly and looked up at Lars, his eyes curtained by his fringe, "Should I be scared that you don't deny that you enjoy seeing me in my boxers?"

"Very" Lars said playfully growling at the Canadian before pathetically scratching Matthew's arm, causing the Canadian to laugh even louder. Matthew quickly stifled his laugh to small spluttering giggles due to the odd looks the duo was receiving.

Lars's mood had improved greatly after that and it continued to improve as the sailed around the store picking up food with Matthew. They reached a problem however when the item they wanted had two options. Lars would always want to choose the cheaper one, Matthew the more expensive one.

Things got serious when it came to buying an extra on the mental shopping list – maple syrup.

"Lars I don't want the cheap imitation stuff! I want real maple syrup eh!" Matthew said getting frustrated.

"But 'the real stuff' costs five times more than this one" Lars calmly said holding up a competing brand.

"It isn't the same eh!" Matthew said getting hysterical.

Lars let out a giant sigh and stared at the red face Canadian, "Oh God, calm down Mattie, I'll get you the maple syrup just please calm down" Lars said, not wanting their friendship, and what he hoped would be a potential relationship, to fall to pieces over a bottle of maple syrup.

"Thank you" Matthew said throwing his arms around Lars neck with a look of pure innocent glee.

"Err, that's alright; I wasn't all that willing to argue over maple syrup" Lars said, finding the close-range Canadian was making his heart beat faster, that and his realising he had a painfully soft spot for the Canadian.

Lars watched as Matthew let go of him smiling, although Lars swore he heard the other boy mutter something about maple syrup always being argument worthy, which made him laugh and roll his eyes slightly.

"We just need to get some milk and then we're done" Lars stated the Matthew.

"Oh, that's just over here" Matthew squeaked walking quickly over to the milk. Lars made sure to catch up with him.

After collecting the milk they made there way over to the checkout to pay, loading everything in their baskets onto the small conveyor belt. They both began to prepare plastic bags ready to put the items in. The cashier scanned each item with a practised preciseness that gave the two boys packing a hard time keeping up with the items flying towards them.

Once the onslaught of food items had ended the cashier had proclaimed the total of the items, "That'll be fifty dollars sixty seven please" she said with a blatantly flirty smile, Lars was repulsed by the way she lent over to try and seem sexier.

"I'm gay. Stop trying to flirt with me" Lars said, making the girl's smile drop in a millisecond. Instead she then went to stare at the Canadian who was still placing items of food into the plastic bags.

"So is that little cutie over there your boyfriend?" she asked with a bit of a smirk.

"No he's my best friend" Lars said trying to end the conversation. 'Although I wish he was my boyfriend' Lars added in his head.

"That's sad, you'd make an adorable couple" she whispered giving a bit of a wink to Lars.

"Can I please just pay?" Lars groaned, even though he was happy in knowing he wasn't the only one who thought he and Matthew would make a good couple.

"Alright, are you paying by card?" the woman chimed as though they hadn't just had that whole conversation.

"Yeah" Lars droned pulling out his wallet and pulling out the credit card his parents had lent him for food.

The woman tapped some stuff in on the screen and put the card in the machine and signalling to Lars that he needed to put his pin in. The transaction went through and the woman pulled the card out and handed it back to Lars wrapped in a receipt.

"Thank you very much sir" the woman's high pitched voice pierced the air as Lars picked up the bags that were too heavy for the Canadian. Lars lent behind the Canadian to obscure his mouth from the woman and quickly whispered a warning to run. Matthew just giggled but his pace was a bit faster than normal.

* * *

It was almost five in the afternoon by the time the two got home from their shopping expedition, both were worn out from a mixture between the trek home with heavy shopping bags, and yet more laughing; mostly at Lars impression of the cashier complete with pout and trashy accent.

"So should we get cooking now?" Matthew asked gently placing the bags on the counter.

"Alright, I was planning on watching a film later on this evening anyway so we can eat it while watching that" Lars replied, dropping his shopping bags on the counter, causing some things to spill out.

"Lars! You dropped some stuff, please be careful" Matthew said, worrying that his supper was going to end up on the floor in a second.

"It's alright," Lars exclaimed picking up the fallen items, "Anyway, what do you want to eat?"

"Could we make pizza?" Matthew asked before explaining his choice, "It'll be easier to eat when we watch the film."

"Sounds great" Lars said grabbing the ingredients he needed from the bags and cupboards.

"It's crazy how you know all these recipes off by heart you know" Matthew stated in awe, he knew first hand how good the taller boy was at cooking.

"It's crazy how good you are at pancakes" Lars said lightly hitting Matthew on the head with a wooden spoon he had in his hand.

Lars had collect all the ingredients and placed them on the table in the joint dining room and proceeded to gather all the equipment he needed to cook and flicked the oven to the right temperature and beckoned the Canadian into the dining room with him.

"Alright we need to make the dough first" Lars recited as he took the ingredients he needed from the selection on the table and quickly measured them out on the scales in front of him.

"Could you knead the dough for me, I'm going to start with the sauce" Lars said, poking Matthew in the cheek.

"Yeah sure…" Matthew said looking down with a puzzled expression at the bowl.

"Do you know how to knead dough Mattie?" Lars asked.

"Not really, no" Matthew said, still staring intently with a confused expression at the bowl.

"I'll help you then" Lars told the boy, taking the boy's smaller paler hands in his larger more tanned ones, "Ok you start by lifting the dough up then folding it over, then you push down on it with your fists like this" Lars explained going through the actions with the Canadian's hands still clutched in his.

"Oh, I think I get it" Matthew said smiling; however Lars noticed that his cheeks were a flaming red colour.

"You're looking a bit red, are you okay?" Lars asked, genuinely concerned for the boy.

Matthew flinched before turning back to look at Lars, "Yeah, it's just a bit hot in here eh!"

"Err, yeah" Lars said before both of them continued their tasks in silence.

"Why do you like cooking so much?" Matthew asked before stuttering out, "N-not that it's weird you like to cook I-I'm just wondering."

"I think it was because I got really bored and hungry one day when my parents were out and I tried cooking myself lunch," Lars began, "I failed, spectacularly. Being the stubborn child I was, I was determined to get better, I got my mum to teach me the basics, and I got better from there. I'm sort of glad I did learn to cook, otherwise I would end up surviving of take-aways every time my parents go away."

"Aw, I can imagine a cute, small and stubborn little Lars armed with a spoon and a cooking bowl" Matthew said dreamily. Lars laughed and just shook his head as he added spices to the tomato sauce that was simmering on the hob.

"You know, coming to think about it I wasn't that cute as a child" Lars thought aloud, "I sort of looked like an elf."

The Canadian just laughed, being incapable of coming up with a reply.

"I think the dough should be ready now, the sauce is looking done too" Lars announced to a still laughing Canadian as he brought the pan of sauce into the kitchen and placed it on a pan stand in the middle of the table.

"Can I roll it out?" Matthew asked shyly.

"Are you sure you know how to?" Lars said as he jokily winked at the smaller boy, "You know I could show you" Lars said reaching his hands out to touch the other boys. The purple eyed boy just retracted his hand and blushed furiously before shooting a less than threatening glare towards Lars.

"Hey, I'm just asking" Lars said holding his hands up in a sign of peace. Matthew just tsked and began to roll out the dough with rolling pin that was on the table.

"I forgot we need some cheese" Lars said as he clicked his fingers and made his way to the fridge and produced and block of cheese and opened a cupboard to get a cheese grater. When he came back Matthew had finished rolling out the base of the pizza.

"Now you pour the sauce over" Lars said to Matthew, as though reading the recipe in his head. Matthew took the ladle that was hanging on the edge of the pan and used it to scoop up some of the red liquid and pour it on the base, "You'll need a bit more than that Mattie" Lars said looking despairingly at the pizza base that was now covered in a drearily thin layer of sauce. Lars picked up the ladle, not caring that Matthew was still holding onto it as well and was becoming an increasingly red shade. The ladle was dipped back into the sauce and more sauce was spread across the pizza base until there was barely any dough left untouched.

"Now I'm not the master of cooking but you add the cheese next don't you?" Matthew said, finally being able to release his grip on the ladle.

"Indeed" Lars said in a gentlemanly voice, "would you like to do it?" he said looking down at the Canadian.

The other boy just shrugged lightly and agreed with a small nod of his head. He took the cheese grater from the taller boy and the block of cheese residing on the table and vigorously grated the cheese over the pizza base, forcing Lars to stop him before he buried the whole thing.

"Whoa there Mattie, we don't need that much!" Lars said laughing at the mountain of cheese on the pizza and quickly smoothed it out so the cheese was all level.

"Is there any thing in particular that you want on your half of the pizza?" Lars asked his question replied with a quick mumble that sounded oddly like-, "Did you really just ask whether you could put maple syrup on your side of the pizza?"

"No?" Matthew said obviously lying through his teeth.

"Well if you really want to, I suppose you can, but really now Mattie?" Lars asked with a slight look of disgust at the idea of all the flavours mixing.

"Well you'll never know until you try eh!" Matthew said with a meek optimism.

This didn't help remove the disgusted expression on Lars's face, even as he went to get the maple syrup from the shopping bags to give to the blonde boy, the face of which lit up at seeing the amber coloured syrup.

"While you 'enhance' your side of the pizza, I'll put all the shopping away" Lars said still thinking of the terror that will be the maple syrup pizza.

Matthew on the other hand was looking on in amusement as Lars methodically put away all the things in a manner that some would describe as obsessive compulsive, with each item going in its specific place, at the right angle and facing the right way. That's another trait the Canadian found endearingly amusing about Lars: his obsessive need for tidiness. It even surpassed that of the German boy at their school who was tidy to the point of it being an issue. Luckily for Lars though, he could hide his need for neatness much better than the other boy.

"Have you finished supplementing your half of the pizza yet, because I've finished putting the food away" Lars said staring down at the now glazed half of the pizza, "As odd as this'll sound, your half doesn't look too disgusting."

"Thanks, I knew you'd see it my way" Matthew said, giving Lars a bemused expression.

"Well, since the pizza's going to take about half an hour to cook why don't we get changed into out pyjamas, we're going to be downstairs watching the film for a while so we should probably get ready now" Lars suggested as he put the pizza in the oven, "We should quickly clean up though, there isn't much to do anyway."

"Do you want me to put the ingredients away?" Matthew said.

"Yeah sure, you know where it all goes right?" Lars questioned looking at the Canadian before walking over to the sink and filling it with warm soapy water, then returning to the table to pick up all the dirty equipment and place them on the edge of the sink.

Lars began laboriously scrubbing at the sauce pan and quickly moving on to the bowls used for mixing the dough. He then washed the spoons and the rolling pin, along with the ladle. He finished quickly and moved on to drying the dishes with a tea towel that was left on the counter near the sink. He then leaned back against the countertop and watched as the Canadian in his kitchen scurried around placing the leftover ingredients in the appropriate place. Oddly enough, Lars didn't mind when Matthew placed the items of food at a slightly wrong angle or in the wrong place, 'Even my need for clean is dampened by that boy' Lars thought smiling just a bit.

"Lars, are you going to put the washing up away?" Matthew asked having finished his task.

"Oh right, yeah, do you want to put some stuff away?" Lars said slightly shaken from being dragged out of his thoughts.

"Sure" Matthew said slightly blushing.

Lars just smiled and handed over the mixing bowls and sauce pan to the smaller boy who placed them in their respective cupboards, Lars doing the same with the rest of the apparatus.

"I think it's time we get changed then" Lars said, already making his way towards the stairs giving a look towards the Canadian implying that he should follow him. Both of them made it to the bedroom and produced their pyjamas from the respective bags and drawers.

Unlike the night before when Matthew had put on that 'unintentional' show for Lars or like this morning with awkward nakedness, this changing of clothes passed without a hitch meaning the two boys made it downstairs with five minutes spare before the semi-mutated pizza needed to come out.

"So what film are we planning on watching?" Matthew chimed, excited upon seeing the pizza in the oven.

"I think the film is called Spirited Away or something, I heard it's an animated film from Japan" Lars said, having to rack his brain for the name of the film, "Kiku recommended it to me so it can't be too bad right?"

"Well we'll just have to trust Kiku's taste in films, the boy is one to be trusted after all" Matthew concluded, knowing Kiku quite well.

"Do you think we should have some popcorn to go with it?" Lars suggested with a smile that is usually only reserved for children.

"What, to have as a dessert? That sounds great" Matthew said his eyes widening in excitement.

"I'll put some in the microwave, do you mind getting the pizza out?" Lars said reaching up onto his tiptoes to get to the highest shelf where the bags of popcorn lay.

"Sure thing" Matthew said, leaning over to grab the oven gloves and open the oven door and pick up the pizza. Unluckily for the Canadian, his right hand slipped out of the oven gloves just as he was reaching down to pick the pizza tray up causing him to flinch and fly backwards, clutching the burnt finger.

"Merde! Ça fait mal!" Matthew screeched reverting to French as the pain began to spread from his finger to the top part of his palm. As he heard this Lars quickly rushed to grab the Canadian boy's uninjured hand and trying to put it under cold water, but the tap was stuck and this threw the whole kitchen into some sort of a frenzied panic until Lars did the first impulsive thing he could think of.

He took the burnt hand and led it to his mouth where he began to suck on the scalded finger, making sure it cooled down as fast as possible to reduce the pain. Looking at the Canadians face Lars realised that where he was cooling the boy's finger down, he was making the Canadian's cheeks heat up to a point where his cheeks looked as red as the Canadian flag. After keeping the boy's finger in his mouth for a good few minutes Lars gently released it and keeping hold of it grabbed a bandage from the first aid kit kept sensibly in the kitchen and tied Matthews damaged finger to the one next to it, making sure it wasn't too tight he then tied it up.

"When I was little my mum always used to kiss me when I got hurt so…" Lars said bringing his lips up to the bandaged finger and placing a delicate kiss on it.

Matthew was in shock at the whole ordeal and lent his head on Lars's shoulder and muttered a quick thank you before staring at the pizza, "Well at least the pizza's cooled down now" Matthew mumbled, trying to make light of the situation,

"Well every cloud has a silver lining I guess" Lars sighed slipping his hands into the oven gloves picking the pizza up from the open oven and placing it on the hob. He then shut the oven off and closed the oven door. He produced a pizza cutter from the many pots and jars that lined the countertop, each filled with different utensils. He cut the pizza in two.

"Can you handle getting two plates?" Lars requested with a concerned look aimed at the purple eyed boy.

"I think so" Matthew muttered, reverting to the meek tone he used when he first met Lars. He walked over to the right cupboard and pulled out to large plates with his uninjured hand and set them next to Lars.

"Thank you and," Lars placed the maple-glazed half of the pizza on one of the plates, "here's your pizza" Lars said ruffling the boys hair.

Matthew nodded, still slightly shaken from burning his hand. Lars just quickly picked up his half of the pizza and put it on the plate before lifting it up in his hand and leading Matthew into the familiar living room and placing his plate on the coffee table in the centre silently asking Matthew to do the same. He walked over to flick on the large flat screen television his parents had bought recently, and set it to the right channel for the film they wanted to watch.

"Ugh, we forgot the popcorn" Lars mused. The Canadian just giggled and looked at his pizza.

"I think we'll be fine to be honest, we have quite a lot to eat" Matthew said seeming to cheer up a bit at the concept of eating the pizza in front of him.

"Glad to see you cheer up" Lars cooed before flopping on the sofa next to the Canadian and slinging his arm around the other's shoulder. Just as they both settled down the film began filling the screen with intricate animation and vivid colours. Lars seemed engrossed in the film and eating his pizza whereas Matthew began nibbling at his pizza but was more fixated on his hand and Lars.

"Does your pizza taste okay?" Lars said looking at the revolting glazed pizza.

"Yes! I'm just savouring it" Matthew chimed, smiling properly for the first time since burning himself.

"I swear maple syrup is your happy drug; just one drop and" Lars began miming the drinking of maple syrup before leaning in towards Matthew, "you're away in the clouds" he whispered right next to Matthews ear.

"Stop scaring me like that eh!" Matthew wailed, before pouting and returning to watching the film. Lars stared at him for a few seconds and snickered, aggravating the Canadian more.

"Stop laughing at me eh!" Matthew seethed; getting thoroughly annoyed at Lars by this point and so he decided to carry out a small plan for revenge with the only weapon he had on hand. His syrup coated piece of pizza. "Hey Lars" Matthew said mischievously, causing Lars to turn around with an open mouthed grunt. Matthew ripped a piece of his half of the pizza and shoved it in Lars's mouth.

"That's what you get for laughing at me" Matthew gleamed smugly at the repulsed face that Lars bore as he tasted the pizza that had invaded his mouth, after choking violently at the flavour for a good few minutes Lars calmed down enough to be able to speak.

"You are an evil child, Matthew" Lars hissed looking down intensely at the Canadian next to him who, in all honesty, looked rather drowsy all of a sudden, "You look really tired Mattie, are you alright?" Lars said, leaning his head on the others in a comforting manner.

"Yeah… but I think I might take a nap for a bit, not that the film isn't good but, sleep is more important" Matthew whined with his eyelids drooping down and his speech slurring slightly, "This day has taken a lot out of me" he added.

"You can sleep for a bit then; if you don't wake up yourself I'll wake you up when the film ends to take you upstairs" Lars spoke softly as not to disturb the starting of the Canadian boy's dreams, "I'll make it proper romantic, bridal style and everything" Lars added on to the end, making the Canadian leaning on his shoulder chuckle sleepily before closing his eyes fully and letting his body go limp.

Matthew smiled adoringly and the boy before returning his attention to the film that he had been neglecting and gradually readjusted himself to it; picking up parts of the plot he'd missed during his petty fight with Matthew. He then began to become engrossed in the film entirely for a long duration of time… until something odd happened: something Lars probably would never forget.

"Aaah, Lars!" the sleeping boy next to him moaned loudly out of the blue, his dreams obviously influencing the outburst. He then continued to moan even louder, panting out Lars's name and gripping onto his t-shirt tightly with his fists. His face was flushed yet still his eyes remained closed.

Now if it was any other of Matthew's friends they would have woken him up out of embarrassment and tried to pretend it never happened, but then again this was Lars; firstly he was overjoyed, he'd pretty much just found out that the boy he liked, liked him back and in one of the best ways possible may I hasten to add and secondly Lars was in a position of power over the sleeping boy and decided to try some things out to see if he could get more of a reaction out of the slumbering beauty sprawled across him, still panting and moaning his name.

"Oh God, please Matthew!" Lars dramatically whispered into Matthew's ear, curious as to what reaction he'd get. The Canadian replied to this by moaning even louder and rolling his head back.

Then it just all stopped. Everything went quite and after a few moments Matthew opened his eyes, still flushed and slightly sweaty, with a blissful sleepy expression.

"Have a nice dream there Mattie?" Lars said smirking and leaning over the boy until he was almost on all fours over him.

"Y-y-yes, it was such a nice… calm dream eh" Matthew said trembling slightly at the position they were in.

"Judging from the sounds you were making, I'm going to say that's a lie" Lars breathed out before leaning even closer into the Canadian before murmuring seductively, "I don't like being lied to Mattie" then pressed his lips forcefully against the Canadians, what did he have to lose?

Now what he didn't expect was the Canadian to meet him halfway with the kiss with the same amount of force he had used himself.

This week was about to get a whole lot better for Lars: he could feel it.

* * *

(*) By this I mean Soccer, I'm English, so I'll use English spellings etc. I probably should've mentioned that last chapter but... oh well!

Authors note;

'Ello there! Chapter two is up, in all its un-proofread glory! ;)

Bromantic duo theses two are right? I was intending this chapter to focus more on their friendship and the fact that they have a different relationship than most but... I couldn't help but add the last bit in; I need it for plot purposes! Sorry for the slow update, I rewrote this chapter three times, all with different plots, but I liked this one the most so I stuck with it. Also, to the anonymous reviewer who didn't like Matthew saying 'eh' a lot, I have to agree, I only put it in because it seemed like a good idea at the time of editing , I hate it now! I'm only using it now when he's flustered or angry. :)

To top of this horrendously long authors note I'm going to say I may write a short (*cough*) one shot of this pairing for Valentines Day. Keep your eyes peeled kids. ;)


	3. Chapter 3

The second Lars realised that Matthew was kissing him back, all hell broke lose, the dam that was keeping Lars from pouncing on his Canadian friend was now broken. Luckily for Lars the same could be said for Matthew, who feared that the secret love he had for Lars would remain an unrequited one.

Matthew's hands reached up to tangle in Lars's loose hair whilst Lars's hands just ran down the sides of the boy before moving back up to rub his chest. Neither of them deepened the actual kiss though, leaving it at a slow romantic pace, they just let their hands roam anywhere they could and after a few minutes they had to break away for air.

They stayed in the same position breathing heavily before Lars lent forward until the two boys' lips barely brushed; only a few millimetres apart, "How long have you felt like this Mattie?" Lars choked out breathlessly still in a state of shock from all the events that had happened in the past ten minutes or so.

Matthew shied away with his cheeks completely flushed, he kept turning his head to try and bury it in the sofa, but to no avail. After a few moments he looked up at Lars with eyes that were glossy from tears, his hair was also dishevelled and so Lars took it upon himself to brush the stray strands away from the boy's face which at first caused Matthew to flinch then he lent into the hand that continued to brush the hair away. Lars left his hand there for Matthew to use as a pillow and leant in close to kiss Matthew on the forehead, barely grazing the skin.

"I-I-" Matthew stuttered before fading out again, however when he looked up into Lars's comforting eyes he found the courage to try again, "I-I guess I started to think you were cute when I first saw you," Matthew finally managed to breath out before psyching himself up again to continue, "and then we became friends, I sort of just fell in love with you.." Matthew smiled, he'd finally got it off his chest.

"You actually… love me?" Lars asked with a half-witted expression before leaning down and kissing Matthew lightly on the corner of his mouth. He pulled back to see his Canadian angel blush furiously add mumble a quick yes, "So does that mean you don't mind if I kiss you again?" Lars growled.

"Don't joke around at a time like this, I just told you I love you eh!" Matthew blurted, he just wanted Lars to be serious for once. Lars hung his head slightly in shame, remembering that it was probably hard for the Canadian to admit that he loved him in the first place, as much as he'd like to pretend he'd 'cured' Matthew of his shyness; he hadn't. It was still hard for Matthew to express himself.

"Want me to make it up to you?" Lars said sinking down so he and Matthew were side by side on the sofa staring right at each other. Lars took Matthew's hand and led it up to his mouth where he kissed it before pressing their foreheads together and contently sighed out, "_Ik hou van jou_."

"That means I love you, right?" Matthew murmured out, averting his eyes before squeezing the hand that Lars was still holding and lowly chiming, "_Je t'aime_."

A comfortable silence fell over them like a blanket; they both just stared at each other enjoying the sound of the other's heartbeat, or the sound of their breathing. Lars leant forward and brushed his lips against Matthew's own enjoying the feeling akin to electricity run through them. When Lars pulled away Matthew giggled and moved closer into Lars's arms that wrapped around his lithe body, "So does this mean you want to bear the title of being my boyfriend?" Lars asked cutely into Matthew's ear.

"What would said title involve?" Matthew enquired, gaining some confidence back as the two acted more like they normally would.

"Well, we act the same as usual I guess, but," Lars answered mumbling slightly, "I get to kiss you, occasionally grope you and very rarely leave hickeys. Sound good to you?"

"Throw in holding hands in public, especially at school, and extra cuddling and you may just have yourself a deal there" Matthew said quietly, nuzzling his face into Lars's neck.

"… and that's why I love you" Lars said after Matthew had listed his other conditions for the relationship.

"Care to list the _actual_ reasons why you love me?" Matthew said, curious as to the reason someone would like the awkward shy boy with glasses. Lars raised an eyebrow and bent forward towards Matthew, taking his glasses off and putting them on the floor. Wasting no time, considering not much thinking was required, Lars began to list the reasons.

"To begin with, because you're cute," Lars began, planting a kiss on the boy's forehead, "you have the most amazing laugh," a kiss to the left cheek, "the most beautiful eyes,", two kisses, one to each closed eye, "the nicest body," a kiss to the neck, "the kindest personality," a kiss to the temple, "you're funny in a shy way," a kiss to the nose, "and lastly, because you're you, Mattie" Lars punctuated this by landing a very light kiss on the Canadian's lips and letting it linger for a second.

"You can be incredibly sweet sometimes you know" Matthew said with a glaring blush. Even after the two had separated Matthew still felt a tickling sensation where Lars had left the kisses, "Oh and you do realise we've gone from best friends to a couple in…" Matthew checked his watch, "less than half an hour."

"You do know not much is going to change? The only difference now is that I can do this," Lars reassured before leading his hand down to Matthew's ass and giving it a quick squeeze, "without you complaining."

"That wasn't very gentlemanly eh!" Matthew complained, he was about to add more but Lars cut him off.

"Hey you can't complain," Lars said, lifting a finger to Matthew's lips to quell him, "you _did_ agree when you became my boyfriend that you'd put up with occasional groping."

Matthew groaned against Lars's neck before letting his lips move again, "Don't make me regret this Lars."

Lars pulled the boy up so Matthew was sitting on his lap then looked him straight in the eye, "You will never regret being my boyfriend," the arms wrapped around Matthew's waist tightened so he was flush up against Lars, "I can guarantee that" Lars assures.

"So will you stop being such a pervert?" Matthew asked, resting his forehead against the others. Lars just laughed and pushed Matthew down so he was back on all fours over him.

"Now that's just asking too much from me Mattie" Lars hummed as he lifted the hoody and t-shirt off the boy before he could protest and let his hand run down the front of the body below him, starting at the collarbone that jutted out just slightly; running two fingers across it before running the hand down to the noticeably protruding ribcage, he gently let his fingers bump over the bones, "You're so thin Mattie, it worries me" Lars declared before letting his fingertips draw lazy shapes across the boys stomach, squeezing the sides to entice a laugh from the boy.

"So as soon as I tell you to stop being a pervert you start stripping me, good boyfriend you are" Matthew said grinning and rolling his eyes.

"You know you love it really" Lars said airily.

"Never said I didn't" Matthew purred before pecking Lars on the lips and trying to squirm out from under him.

"Oh no you don't Mattie!" Lars chuckled scooping the boy up from the waist until the Canadian was sitting on his lap facing him again.

"You like me sitting like this don't you?" Matthew asked cutely, and slightly shyly as he realised how badly what he said could be interpreted.

Lars hummed happily before nibbling on the shell of Matthew's ear and adding, "Well it's be better if we both had no clothes on and you were bouncing on my-" what Matthew presumed was the start of Lars's graphic sexual fantasy was cut off by Lars's phone blaring out an obnoxious Dutch rap song.

Matthew couldn't help but laugh as Lars spoke in some very angry Dutch over the phone. Matthew tried to calm him by pressing an innocent kiss to his cheek which fortunately made Lars blush and lower his voice a bit, as the conversation wound down Lars said goodbye to what Matthew figured was his mother, "_Ja, ik zal_! Bye, see you soon mum" Lars said smiling.

"Why must my parents be such cock-blockers?" Lars sighed.

"I'm afraid all parents are; they have a sixth sense you see," Matthew started, "or that's at least what Alfred presumes, what with my mom calling him every time he gets to second with Arthur."

"Wait, they've only got to second?" Lars queried, he was convinced that the two must've gone to at least third.

"Apparently Arthur's a bit of a prude so… yeah. Although Arthur gets really desperate when he's drunk so there's hope for Alfred yet" Matthew gossiped.

"I think Alfred probably has more morals than to take advantage of someone when they're drunk, he's 'the hero' after all" Lars spat, still not that keen on the American even after a few months of knowing him.

"No but seriously Arthur pretty much begs for it, I'm surprised Alfred can resist" Canada added, remembering seeing a very drunk Arthur dancing on a table whilst stripping. It was one of the memories that Canada thought should be locked away forever and never shown to the light of day. But that was just his take on it of course; it was probably a very treasured memory for Alfred.

"So what are you like drunk then?" Lars asked, honestly not being able to imagine the shy boy drunk. The being said he could certainly imagine him being slightly tipsy at a club and dancing provocatively. Lars liked that mental image: he liked it a lot.

"I don't know, I've never really been drunk before" Matthew admitted, slightly shyly.

"That sucks; you'd be really cute drunk you know. Do you want to try getting drunk now?" Lars asked with an oddly suggestive wink.

"Not on a school night Lars, which reminds me, we need to go to sleep, it's half ten and we have school tomorrow" Matthew said strictly, yawning afterwards to exaggerate his point. Lars scowled but spoke anyway.

"It's probably a good idea actually" he smoothly lifted Matthew off his lap and let him stand up. Since the film had long ended Lars flicked the television off and was careful to remember the hoody, glasses and t-shirt that had been discarded on the floor and bundled them into his arms, following the Canadian up the stairs. They made it up to Lars's room and Lars put all Matthew's stuff down then subtly asked whether he could share the bed with Matthew.

"Lars, we've been going out for about an hour and a half, what on earth makes you think I'm going to share a bed with you" Matthew scolded as he pulled on a loose top over his naked torso glaring at Lars.

"Because I'm sexy of course" Lars joked before continuing, "But really though, I know we've only become 'officially' boyfriend and… boyfriend a few hours ago but listen," Lars's tone had turned into a more caring, loving tone as he took Matthew's jaw in one of his hands and forced the smaller boy to look at him, "we've been like a couple for longer than you think, we randomly flirted, hugged and did things that drove each other wild be it with anger or lust" Matthew blushed at the last one, knowing it was true to some extent, himself being the worst offender, "just because we've given ourselves a title doesn't change anything, we've been through this" Lars exhaled slowly, "but I understand if you don't want to sleep in the same bed" he released his grip on the boy's chin and began changing.

The Dutch boy shrugged his hoody off and pulled the t-shirt up over his head and tossed them both in the corner. He was about to pull down his tracksuit bottoms before he felt two delicate arms wrap around his waist and squeeze him tight. Lars smiled and led his own hands to rest on top of the others and leaned back into the embrace for a few moments before gripping Matthew's hands tight, "I need to get changed quickly Mattie, then I'll give you a proper hug" Lars whispered before climbing out of the boy's grip and walking over to his chest of drawers and producing some clean pyjama bottoms.

He slowly pulled the tracksuit bottoms down to the floor and flicked them off his feet into the pile of dirty clothes in the corner. So he was now standing in the centre of the room in only his boxers, he stretched up, clicking various joints in his body, unaware that the boy leaning against the headboard of the bed was watching every flex of the muscles and slight bend of his body with a piqued curiosity. Lars pulled on his pyjama bottoms and turned to see Matthew staring intently at him.

"You liking what you see Mattie?" Lars asked smugly grinning and sauntering towards Mattie pushing him further up the headboard.

"Why wouldn't I like it?" Matthew replied letting his fingertips trace the complicated outline of Lars's back muscles before seeping round the sides of his body to touch the strong chest muscles, being careful to brush over the pink nubs that were there making Lars let out a strangled moan in surprise at the bold action.

"That's foul play Mattie" Lars said dragging his hand down Matthew's chest just as the other had done to him, but instead of just brushing over the nubs Lars experimentally pinched them, eliciting an interesting cry from the boy. Lars leant back so he could see all of _his_ Canadian and noticed something that would make a fun use of a few minutes, "You haven't taken your jeans off yet my dear" Lars said in an overtly patronising voice, "I'll just help get them off then", Lars leant his head down the hem of the jeans, moving to the button and undoing it with his teeth and tongue, keeping eye contact with the lavender eyed boy the whole time. Once the button was out of the way Lars took the zipper in his teeth and pulled it down. Lars sat up straight and looked down on his new boyfriend, who looked gorgeous; he was flustered with his eyes half lidded, his cheeks a cherry red, his t-shirt riding up a bit to show his creamy stomach and lastly, as the cherry on top, the undone jeans.

"Are you going to finish taking of my jeans then?" Matthew said in an innocent voice that added even more cuteness of the described scene.

"If you want me to I suppose I can…" Lars growled as he placed two fingers from each hand in a belt loop and slowly began to pull the pair of jeans down. His remaining fingers on both hands followed the path of the jeans and stroked the boys legs, starting with the soft thighs, rising up the bump of Matthew's knees then back down across the slightly muscled calves. Lars proceeded to use both hands to wriggle the jeans off Matthew's feet before roughly folding it and laying it down on top of the rest of his boyfriend's stuff near the side of the bed.

"Now they're out of the way" Lars mumbled with a wink before laughing and pressing a shy kiss on Matthew's lips which the other boy welcomed and after leaving the kiss gentle for a few seconds Matthew tried gently prodding his tongue against the crease between Lars's lips beckoning them to be opened, which they did; rather willingly too. As soon as both of them had their mouths open there was a full blown exploration between the two of them, Lars let his tongue delve into the recesses of Matthews mouth, over his upper teeth – including the one tooth Lars could feel was wonky, then he continued over the bottom teeth; Lars wanted to know every part of his angel. They kept going like this, the two tongues occasionally brushing every once in a while, starting off a small war between the two boys. Matthew grunted in discomfort and pulled away, obviously out of breath.

"You taste just like maple syrup" Lars choked out between heavy pants, being as out of breath as the Canadian in front of him.

"I'd be scared if I didn't" Matthew breathed out, his chest was rising and falling violently and so he let his head rest on the muscular shoulder in front of him, his calmed him down considerably so he managed to get some more words to form, "As fun as that was Lars can we leave it at that tonight, not that I didn't like it but I'm tired."

Lars grunted a response and pulled the boy's body closer to him for a hug and placed a kiss on the top of his head and gently rocked his body from side to side soothingly, "I'm so lucky to have you" Lars mumbled into Matthew's hair.

"I'm even luckier to have you" Matthew chimed, throwing a small kiss to Lars's cheek before snuggling back into the embrace. Lars's eyes glossed over the clock, realising it was now quarter past eleven he suggested going back to bed.

"I think we should go to sleep now," this was punctuated with a kiss to the forehead, "it's late" Lars said retracting his arms from Matthew and lying him flat on the bed and spreading the covers over him in a swift action to prevent complaints.

Lars did the same to himself getting into bed and setting the alarm clock to about seven in the morning, he looked up for his airbed to see his lover already drifting off to sleep with his bleary eyes struggling to stay open. Lars snapped his fingers causing the boy to jump, "I just remembered, when my parents called, they said they have to stay another day or two for work, apparently there was more to do than they first thought" Lars informed getting comfortable in his bed.

"So much for them being cock-blockers then…" Matthew mumbled sleepily as he pulled the blankets tighter over him to try and conserve heat since it was a cold night.

"Hey, just because they're not going to be in the house doesn't mean they can't cock-block us by phone" Lars reminded him, "we figured that out the hard way" Lars grumbled. Matthew giggle but still continued to shift around in his bed to try and warm up, "Are you a bit cold there Mattie? You look really uncomfortable" Lars asked.

"I'm a tiny bit cold, but it's alright…" Matthew assured with a weak smile. Lars gave him an unconvinced look and took his own blanket and pillow and threw it on his bed and crawled in next to Matthew with his pillow side by side with Matthew's own and Lars's blanket over Matthew's for extra warmth. Lars pulled Matthew in so the Canadian's back was up against his chest and held him there. Lars reached his arm out to flick the light off, still holding on to his boyfriend who Lars was proud to say hadn't complained about the sleeping arrangement yet.

"Goodnight Mattie" Lars whispered directly into Matthews ear giving it a quick innocent bite along the shell, noticing that it got a bit of a reaction from Matthew he tried trailing kisses down the back of his ear and down his neck, remembering on of the other agreements that Matthew made when he chose to become his boyfriend, "I know you said no more tonight but let me do one more thing to prove that you're mine", Lars said with a mischievous tone in his voice, Matthew guessed he had his trademark smirk on, even if he couldn't see it in the pitch black room.

"Mmm, what are you plan-", Matthew's complaint turned into a sounds of pleasure as Lars latched onto his neck and sucked, lightly at first but before he broke away it turned slightly vicious, "What did you just do Lars?" Matthew asked naively, not realising what Lars had just produced.

"You'll see in the morning" Lars yawned, still sounding smug because he knew his boyfriend would forget. The two boys nestled into each others arms and bid each other goodnight before they both closed their eyes Lars swore he heard Matthew whisper, 'I love you', just before they both dropped off into dreamland.

* * *

The alarm blared out an obscene ringing and the taller boy in the bed groggily opened his eyes looking down at the boy next to him who was waking up in a similar manner. He turned the alarm off and leaned over the cute boy in his bed.

"Morning kiss?" Lars said trying to be cute, but decided that wasn't such a good idea when Matthew's face twisted in a revolted manner.

"Morning breath more like" he mumbled out before leaning up and rubbing his and Lars's noses together in an Eskimo kiss instead, "Let's brush our teeth then we can kiss properly" Matthew mumbled sleepily floating towards the bathroom before Lars even got a chance to pull himself out of bed. When Lars finally gathered enough willpower to chuck himself out of bed and make his way over to the bathroom he was happy to see his little Canadian brushing his teeth vigorously. He looped his arms around the boy's torso and picked up his toothbrush and toothpaste. He squeezed a dot on his toothbrush and started brushing his with the same amount of vigour as Matthew was. They both spat out the remaining foamy residue in the sink in an oddly synchronised motion.

"Kiss please" Lars begged, leaning in invitingly and pointing to his lips. Matthew, taking this as a challenge, kissed on only the left corner of the taller boy's lips then on the right side, then on the Cupid's bow and lastly on the bottom lip. He giggled and then threw his lips onto the others keeping them in a tender lip-lock for a good few minutes before Lars broke away, "_That_ was a morning kiss alright" Lars said with a satisfied grin.

Matthew looked nervously at the floor and played with his feet with a smile and a bright red blush, "This is my first relationship I still don't know whether that's how it all works… " the Canadian confessed. Lars smiled gently, and stroked the boy's hair before using two fingers to lift the boy's chin up so they were eye level.

"Looks like we're going to have to figure this thing out together then…" Lars said reassuringly. Matthew let the meaning of Lars's words soak in before a light bulb flickered to life in his head.

"You've… never been in a relationship before?" Matthew was shocked; surely he must've had a boyfriend over in the Netherlands.

"No, only my two best friends in the Netherlands knew I was gay anyway; I got mostly unwanted attention from girls and occasionally from boys, but they were never right for me" Lars sighed before looking at his boyfriend, "I'm running on ideas from romance films and novels, it's nice to see it's working though, if I can fool you into thinking otherwise" Lars admitted as bashfully as it was possible with an appearance like Lars's.

"So… cute" Matthew fawned finding that 'cute' was the only word he could use to describe the tall boy in front of him, "I honestly can't believe you've been single up until now…" Matthew said rubbing his eyes from sleep.

"I guess I was just waiting for someone like you to come along; worth the wait in my opinion" Lars commented in a cheesy way before lifting the lighter boy into his arms and swinging him around, being careful not to knock anything over.

"You're a hopeless romantic" Matthew cooed before making his way over to the bedroom to get changed again he was stopped by a pair of arms draped over his shoulders. Lars's face was nuzzling his neck from behind in what Matthew thought was an exceptionally adorable sign of affection.

What Lars was actually doing was marvelling at the large hickey he'd managed to leave on the boy's neck last night. He smirked into the junction between the Canadian's neck and shoulder revelling in the fact that the hickey certainly wouldn't be covered by the school uniform. The best part however? Matthew hadn't noticed the 'blemish' yet, and Lars was planning on keeping it that way.

Because who was he kidding; he may be a romantic but nothing could make him happier than seeing the blushing face of his boyfriend after he realises that he'd been bearing Lars's mark of possession the whole day.

'Now_ that_ is a nice image' Lars thought, 'a _very_ nice image.'

Well, now to get on with creating it.

* * *

Author's note:

POW! Vaguely fast update! :D (To be fair this is about 2,000 / 3,000 words shorter than the other chapters but SHH!)

So yeah this chapter is about T+ because it annoys me in some fanfics when it's confession and then sex. Yeaah... I highly doubt that actually happens in real life. This is T+ because Lars is a pervert. 'Nuff said.

And I apologise for last chapter, the end was a bit crazy with spelling and I think I got mixed up between writing Lars and Matthew at some points so sorry if it made it hard to read, I'm working on reading through chapters more carefully before uploading.

So yeah, transition chapter to writing the school scenes. Brace yourself for the other countries lads! ;)

(Side note: Running out of synonyms for 'said' GRRRR.)


	4. Chapter 4

The two boys had somehow managed to get to the front door in time, looking moderately polished considering what the two had been getting up to in the hour prior, which included a civilized breakfast followed by a heated make-out session; a great morning for the new couple. Before they left Matthew gave Lars a faint kiss on the cheek and hugged him, "Today's the day we have all the same lessons, right?" Matthew said with his hand resting in the hand Lars wasn't using to open the door.

"Yeah, which is great because it means I don't have to let you out of my sight all day" Lars responded, touching noses with the boy below him. Still finding it weird getting used to looking at Matthew as a boyfriend and acknowledging that he actually loved him back.

Matthew giggled and gripped onto Lars's hand tighter as they walked out into the streets of their town, excited and slightly worried about the reaction that they'd get at being a couple when they got to school.

The hand-locked duo strolled along one of the winding streets that lead towards their school and talked without breaks about anything and everything that came to mind. As the conversation started to move onto something about favourite animals there was a disturbance in the way of an albino. Scrap that, a very loud, shameless self proclaimed Prussian boy with painfully pale skin, piercing ruby eyes and an ego the size of Europe. That description would better fit the teenager speedily approaching the couple from behind.

Lars was the one who spotted his and Matthew's friend first and also noticed the teen staring with a shocked face at Matthew's neck. The Prussian wordlessly pointed at the hickey and then at Lars, seeming to sense that Matthew hadn't noticed either his presence or the mark on his neck yet. Lars just pointed at the Canadian's neck, then at himself and winked unsubtly at the pale boy. The Prussian shoved out his fist towards Lars and they both bro-fisted before giving each other smug smirks. The Dutch teen then lifted up his and Matthew's interlocked hands showing it off to the unknowing friend.

Sensing his hand being lifted in the air Matthew turned round to see why, only to finally see his good friend, "Gilbert!" he sang out before letting off a dazzling smile towards the boy.

"'Sup birdie?" Gilbert said, using his affectionate term for his small friend, "Oh wait, from the looks of it…" Gilbert said, letting his brow furrow in a mimicked concentration before stating wittily, "You and Lars have _finally_ started fucking?"

Matthew's jaw dropped while he mumbled out some incoherent sentence before ending it with a frantic, "Eh?"

Lars just laughed heartily at his friend's absolute bluntness, "By 'finally started fucking' you mean going out right?" Lars asked, just looking for clarification for his boyfriend's sake more than anything.

"Yeah, well, same thing" Gilbert yelled out with huge arm moments, "Roddy wasn't all that keen on me calling it that either when we first started out…" Gilbert said, softening a bit as he mention his own boyfriend before snapping out of the daydream and continuing, "Err, but congrats to you two, even if it was _really_ predictable, I mean some people made bets on when you'd start 'going out'."

"They did what eh?" Matthew said, more flustered than before, embarrassed at the fact that people found their crushes on each other that obvious that they could make bets on it. Lars just looked on with a bemused expression.

"Made bets," Gilbert repeated before winking at the pair, "and guess who just won twenty dollars" the white haired boy proclaimed with an arrogant smile.

Lars slowly brought his forehead to rest in his palm to express to Gilbert just how stupid that sounded, "Sometimes I wonder how you even have friends Gilbert…" Lars drawled out as he patted Gilbert on the shoulder slowly with his free arm.

"Awesomeness attracts friends from all angles," the Prussian said letting his hands rest on the back of his head, "So anyway, who confessed to whom, was our little Canadian finally bold for once?" the teen said in a patronising way.

Lars looked at Matthew with a Cheshire-cat grin; Matthew gave him a look not dissimilar to a deer caught in headlights, "Pretty much Mattie and I were watching a film and then he fell asleep," Lars began, trying to ignore his boyfriend's expression that was begging him not to continue, "and then he started moaning out my name in his sleep, it was cute…" Lars stopped speaking for a second to kiss his boyfriend, who had the cutest expression ever at that moment, "and then I kissed him and he kissed back, and thus our relationship was born" Lars concluded.

"Pah, sounds like how I found out Roddy liked me! I saw him touching himself in front of his precious piano when I obviously wasn't spying on him," and awkward cough came from Lars and Matthew, "and then I heard him scream my name _so_ loud, it was glorious I tell you" Gilbert ended his story with a big wink and an imitation of how Roderich, his boyfriend, had sounded.

"Thanks for that Gilbert" Matthew deadpanned quietly, not finding the impression very tasteful at all. Lars tried to stifle a giggle, understandably finding the impression hilarious considering it was coming from the mouth of one of his closest friends.

"Yeah but I thought that Roderich rejected you when you first asked him out" Lars said once he'd stopped the childish tittering.

Gilbert grunted before rolling his eyes, "Well, he was sort of still dating Lizzie at that point and I'm guessing he didn't want his ass whooped by a frying pan," Gilbert said, his own eyes widening at the thought of the Hungarian girl's bad habit of wielding a frying pan when angered, "but apparently she started to really like the idea of two guys making out so in the end she broke up with my little cutie Roddy and pretty much forced us to go out. Not that either of us complained or anything."

"Romance tale of the century" Lars exhaled sarcastically looking despairingly at the Prussian. Now it wasn't as though Gilbert was a bad person, he just wasn't exactly boyfriend material, and it was one of life's great mysteries as to why an aristocratic Austrian would want to date the bad boy 'from Prussia'.

"Tch. Don't act sarcastic with me bro, and it was actually romantic until Lizzie forced us into a cupboard and wouldn't let us out until we got to at least second base", Gilbert closed his eyes for a second and then flinched before flickering his eyes back open again not wanting to recall that memory again, "I'll admit that it wasn't the best first date in the world but it was a first date nonetheless!" Gilbert said heroically.

Lars just turned to his boyfriend, looked him square in the eye and said, "I promise I won't be as bad a boyfriend as that boy right there" an accusing finger was pointed at Gilbert with Lars sporting a childish face.

"I'll just have to trust you with that then" Matthew said leaning up to slowly kiss Lars on the lips. The kiss got a tiny bit passionate; making the trio grind to a halt as Lars gently coaxed his tongue into the Canadian's mouth causing an embarrassing moan to drop from both their mouths.

"Get a room you two" the albino spat, not being one for such public displays of affection unless it was between himself and Roderich. The new couple broke away and gazed into each other's eyes before starting to walk again, Matthew's head comfortably resting on his boyfriend's broad shoulder.

They had made it to the gilded gates of their academy and stepped inside towards the entrance, Gilbert had spotted two of his other friends, Francis and Antonio. Francis was Matthew's French cousin and was renowned as being the school's pervert; he had an odd infatuation with… anyone really, gender no bar. The French boy had hair very similar to Matthew's although his was a more straw like blond; he also had incredibly deep blue eyes that often made people double take. Antonio on the other hand was a cheerful Spanish boy with sparkling green eyes and gorgeous tanned skin who had a happy-go-lucky personality that just couldn't be shot down. The Spaniard was in a relationship with a constantly angered Italian in the year below called Romano. Another thing that is probably best to note is that Lars despised Antonio; people say it's impossible to hate the carefree boy but Lars managed it with ease.

"_Bonjour mon cher_!" The French boy announced before strutting over to Matthew and kissing him once on each cheek.

"_Bonjour Francis! Ça-va_?" the Canadian cooed out in French before hugging his cousin with the arm that wasn't interlocked with Lars's.

"_Bien_! What's this? My little _Mathieu_ has finally grown up and got himself a boyfriend! _Oh, et il est trop mignon mon cher_!" the French boy was enamoured with the idea of '_amour_', and he could tell from looking at the Dutch-Canadian that they radiated it. Well he would know; he was French after all.

"_Mignon? Non. Mais, il est beau," _Matthew chuckled,_ "trés beau! Aussi, il est vraiment parfait pour moi_!" Matthew chattered excitedly in his second tongue, proudly showing off his tall boyfriend to his cousin who just smiled paternally at the Canadian.

"My French isn't exactly amazing but I think you just said I was perfect for you did you not? If you did, I may just have to agree" Lars let himself drop so he and Matthew were eye level and brushed his lips over the soft pink cheek of his partner. Francis could've swooned it was so romantic, however his two other friends were calling out to him so they could walk to registration together, not before catching a glimpse at Matthew's neck, at the purple-ish bruise, and looking up and smirking at Lars who did the same back.

"Do you want to start getting to our form room?" Lars asked gently, as not to ruin the moment between himself and Matthew. He slowly rose to his feet, still holding onto Matthew's hand, and flicking the straggling strands of hair from Matthew's forehead.

"Mm-hm" Matthew nodded energetically, effectively messing up the hair that Lars had just sorted out. Lars just sighed and lifted his Canadian in the air by placing both of his large hands on the boy's jutting hips and lifting jerkily, then throwing the boy over his shoulder.

"We'll get there quicker like this" Lars beamed striding through the entrance of the school and down the corridors, naïve to the mortified expression spreading across his boyfriend's pale features. The walk of shame-cum-pride for the couple was greeted with everything from amused expressions, to camera phones, to cheering about the aforementioned betting and even a case of fainting among a certain Hungarian girl.

Much to the Canadian's relief, the classroom door came into sight, but Lars didn't put him down and strode confidently across the classroom until he was at the front where the teacher would stand when conducting a lesson. Instead of stopping there he used his long legs to elegantly step onto the teacher's desk and place Matthew down next to him and turning to the class, "If you haven't already noticed, this boy is finally my boyfriend; so back off" Lars warned in a more threatening voice than intended before crouching into a possessive lip-lock with Matthew.

Cheers of approval and a chorus of 'Awws' were released from the students in the classroom when Lars and Matthew finally separated from the kiss. Embarrassingly for the Canadian in the couple one of the worst people possible had walked into the room just at that moment; his brother. He was standing on a desk, at the front of the classroom, blushing like the virgin he was, being held up at the waist by his boyfriend that Alfred didn't know was his boyfriend in a class full of cheering teenagers. Well this was great wasn't it?

"…Mornin' Mattie…" the obnoxious American gradually spewed out in a state of shock, greeted by a sight that would probably haunt him forever; and that was before he even noticed the hickey.

Matthew gracelessly laughed before explaining the situation to hiss less-than-intelligent brother, "So, well, Lars and I are… sort of together, so, eh" he decided nothing else needed to be said and stood there. Lars relished in the shocked look on his 'disliked' American acquaintance's face.

"Kickass! I knew you'd keep your promise, eh Dutchie!" the American grinned once he'd settled down and let his brain compute the situation.

"P-promise?" the Canadian stuttered.

"Well, the first time I met you your brother was impressed with the fact I could make you talk, so I promised I'd look after you and be a good friend and now seemingly a good boyfriend" Lars explained, picking the Canadian boy up bridal style and stepping down from the desk before the teacher walked in.

"That's so cute" Matthew blushed, pushing his head into his boyfriends chest and letting it rest there. The rest of the class was looking on in awe, some of the couples jealous of the newly founded relationship's sweetness.

"Everyone sit down please" a heavily German accented voice boomed from the door, the command was reciprocated by the large group of teenagers shuffling towards their seats.

The tall man sat down and started to register the class, listing through the foreign sounded names with a practised pronunciation that not many people could master. He finished the register then continued to speak, "You have about ten minutes until you need to get to your first lesson. Do feel free to chat for a bit."

The slightly stunted conversation between the Canadian, the Dutch and the American continued with the American getting the first words in, "I totally knew you guys would go out, I mean 'cause like, you're gay," he said pointing to Lars, "and you're gay too Mattie, so it must've been destiny or somethin'" Lars was resisting the temptation to whack his head multiple times against the desk in front of him.

"A-Alfred, that's presuming quite a lot, I don't just like him because he happens to be gay as well" Matthew stammered out.

"Yeah, I bet you probably fell in love with Arthur long before you realised he was gay" Lars said as he glared at the American.

"Well, sort of, I like, figured out he was gay a few days after I realised I liked him," America looked out of the window dreamily, "he looked so cute calling me a 'bloody wanker'."

Palms of hands reached to upper parts of faces in a precisely timed action that the couple had become accustom to doing when they were with Alfred. The American just smiled at the action, not seeming to grasp what it meant.

"Care to remind me just _how_ you managed to get Arthur to love you?" Lars sighed despairingly glancing at Alfred who allowed a self-assured grin to smother his face.

"It's a long story of lust, betrayal and longing…" the blue eyed boy began, the other two guessing he probably didn't even know what the words he had used meant.

"Of course it was Alfred, of course it was" Lars cooed, patting Alfred's head patronizingly slowly, drawing a pissed expression from the usually beaming face.

"Shut up! It was cute; you just weren't there to see it as all" Alfred pouted, and just as Lars was about to produce a witty retort Matthew cut him off with a finger to his pursed lips.

"Please, no more arguing; just admit that both our relationships are as cute as the others" the Canadian begged, not wanting another full blown argument as per usual. The conversation hushed to a casual chatting, because even if only one of them showed it both Alfred and Lars held a lot of respect for Matthew.

And so their conversation continued at a slower calmer pace, Matthew and Lars occasionally peppering it with chaste kisses; much to Alfred's disdain. But another person in the room was upset too, their chocolate coloured eyes boring into the back of Matthew's head with a jealous gaze. The chattering of voices and jealous gazing continued until the ten minutes was over.

The bell shrilly rang to alert the students that they needed to get ready for first lesson. The boy with the chocolate eyes led his lithe body out of the room before he had to be confronted with the Canadian-Dutch couple.

"So what ya' got first?" Alfred said as Lars checked his planner once again to confirm the lesson.

"Mattie and I have… oh, Art" Lars said, happy it was one of the lessons he had with most of his friends.

"Awesome! I think I have Advanced Maths" Alfred mused. Although Alfred was ignorant, and sometimes a bit dim, he had a real talent for Maths and Physics, probably due to the fact the he wanted to be an astronaut when he grows up; a juvenile dream, yes, but one that could probably be easily achieved by the boy.

"Eh, Mattie, are we finishing off our paintings today?" Lars asked as he took his Art book from his locker and threw it into his satchel.

"I think so, I have quite a lot left to do actually so we need to get going" Matthew said, slightly panicked as he remembered how much work he had to do, he took his own Art book from his locker and put it in his bag then threw his arms around his brother in a brotherly embrace before wishing him a good day and walking out of the now almost empty classroom with Lars.

The Art room was on the other side of the school so Lars and Matthew had to quicken their pace to get to the class on time. Their footsteps echoed through the almost empty school halls and reverberated of the metal surface of the lockers. Lars looked down at his watch and cursed; they were almost five minutes late already.

"Mattie, we're late, we need to run" Lars exclaimed picking his pace up and waiting for the Canadian to follow, which he did, he even overtook Lars for a short amount of time.

They turned up at the classroom door late, breathing heavily and sweating. Now for them it was because they had spent too long getting their books and talking to Alfred so they ran to the classroom. To anyone else who saw them and the vaguely fresh looking hickey on Matthew's neck, it meant they'd spent five minutes fooling around in the supply cupboard before getting to Art.

"Are you two alright, you look a bit worn out," the Grecian teacher said in a motherly tone before patting them both lightly on the back, "you can just finish off your paintings for the rest of this lesson, you have about fifty five minutes so make the most of it."

The two boys nodded at the women and sat at their almost complete paintings next to each other. Lars had painted a beautiful image of tulip fields based off a photo Bella had taken when they went to the Dutch countryside for a few days during a holiday. Matthew on the other hand had painted a scene from one of the many national parks in Canada, this one showing a foreboding mountain range and a glistening silver lake, all surrounded with a deep green forest. The reason they had drawn pictures like this was because the original task was to paint a scene that you thought represented your home country well. An array of scenes had been painted, each one so distinct to their own country that you could tell the country it represented without even thinking.

Lars was adding the finishing touches to his red tulips, adding small bits of ruby coloured shading on the petals of the flowers, when he suddenly got an idea. He dipped his paintbrush in the acrylic paint and drew a little heart on Matthew's hand who looked on with a smile, "Get on with your painting Lars" Matthew whispered, kissing his boyfriend's nose then smiling at his hand.

Lars winked and continued painting in silence. After about fifteen minutes Lars had practically finished his painting so looked at how his boyfriend was doing. He had a small smidge of blue paint on his cheek that made Lars chuckle before pulling his eyes over to the actual painting. It was gorgeous. Every detail looked realistic and the colours were spot on. Lars lent on Matthew's shoulder and continued to admire the painting and the hand that was producing it. Lars looked up before mumbling into Matthews's ear, "I'm so proud of my talented boyfriend you know, talented and beautiful is a killer combination" Matthew stuttered out a thank you and blushed as red as the tulips on the canvas next to him.

The Dutch boy kissed Matthew's neck before adding the absolute finishing touches on his painting, down to the small blemishes on the stems of the tulips, and the wispy stratus clouds that covered the sky. The teacher descended from her desk and lurked around the room gracefully pointing out the thinks she liked about the paintings and places where they could be improved. She floated towards the Canadian's landscape, as entranced by it as Lars was.

"That is truly amazing Matthew" she said in a thick Greek accent, "I honestly don't know how you can improve, you have such talent" she patted Matthew on the head and nodded approvingly before moving onto Lars's picture.

"Very good Lars, you've really captured the picture well. I'm proud of you" she spoke gently as not to disturb other people who were working. She passed along not giving any criticism to Lars either. When she'd gotten further away Lars and Matthew turned to look at each other and high fived with their non-dominant hands before they intertwined their fingers and continued their paintings. They had about a quarter of an hour to finish them off. The Dutch boy was done. He settled for watching his Canadian's elegant hand swoop and dive, creating different brush strokes adding bolder stroked to the rocky mountain face, wispier ones to the body of water. It was fascinating to Lars how Matthew's hand created the individual strokes. Lars painted in a very blocky way compared to how his boyfriend painted.

"Phew, I've finished and it isn't half bad actually" Matthew beamed, he was happy that he was finally done, as much as he'd enjoyed the assignment it had dragged on too long and he was so happy it was over so he could move onto something different.

"Okay students please leave your canvases where they are, I'll mark them tonight, they all look wonderful and I expect you will all get amazing grades!" the woman grinned and continued, "You may all scuttle off to break now" as she finished what she was saying the bell went off.

"I love Art lessons on a Monday morning, they're so relaxing" Matthew mumbled as he lent his head on the Dutchman's shoulder and walked out of the classroom.

Yet again, neither of them noticed the same brown eyes glancing in despair at them as they exited the Art room.

"We have Maths and P.E. after this. I think we're doing football in P.E. which will be fun" Lars said smiling at the Canadian who looked unimpressed at the idea of doing football. Matthew was much more of an ice-hockey person, it was Lars who had a passion for football and who played on the school team.

"The only good thing about doing P.E. is being able to see you in your kit and you know it" Matthew said, surprisingly defiant.

"You only just admit that now?" Lars teased.

"You're my boyfriend now. It would be a bit creepy for me to go up to one of my friends and tell them how hot they looked in a sports kit" Matthew reasoned.

"Pfft. Like you'd tell anyone but me how good they looked in football kit" Lars smugly concluded.

Matthew went up on tip-toes and pressed his forehead against Lars. He would've kissed him but the corridor was packed and they'd proved enough times today that they were together, there wasn't much more reinforcement needed. After an all out battle through the corridor they made it back to their form room, flopping down in their usual seats. Alfred walked in with a grouchy Englishman in tow.

"Alfred I honestly don't need help with the Maths homework for the love of the Queen!" the Brit exclaimed indignantly, attempting to throw the American off him and failing. Since Lars found Arthur to be actually bearable he decided to help him out. He lifted Alfred in all his American glory up in the air with one arm, leaving Arthur a chance to escape and brush himself off. Once Lars was sure that Arthur was safe he dropped the American down 'lightly enough' on a chair.

"Are you alright Arthur?" Lars asked, he and Arthur weren't the closest of friends but they were very similar to each other and held a great amount of admiration for each other's polite mannerisms and interests.

"Yes, I'm quite fine, that oaf really knocks the energy out of me, thank you for your help" Arthur took his school blazer off and shook it out before putting it back on, "I heard you and Matthew are now together, I wish you the best in your relationship… or I at least wish it to be better than mine and Alfred's" Arthur sighed.

"Just because you act like a frigid old man and won't let me show you the night of your life!" Alfred yelled from his chair, obviously trying to wind the Brit up. From what Matthew had told Lars before, Alfred thought Arthur was about ten times cuter when he was angry or flustered.

To try and drown out the screaming and vulgar language from his poor Canadian's ears Lars covered them with his hands and kissed Matthew square on the lips, both of them ignoring the looks they were getting, along with the argument behind them.

Again, envious eyes shrieked at the unknowing boys, telling them silently to stop, that this envious glarer couldn't bear what they were doing.

About five minutes before the bell rung the two boys broke the sweet kiss, realising the arguing had stopped, presumably Arthur had stropped out of the room swearing like a sailor; it happened too much for comfort actually.

"Should we get our books?" Lars whispered against the soft pink lips in front of his own.

"Yeah, we have Maths and P.E. right?" Matthew enquired moving his hand towards Lars's and suddenly lurching forward to grip it, making Lars jump. The Canadian giggled and Lars faked a pout before kissing Matthew's hair and resting there for a second. The bell shocked him out of it and he swiftly pulled his locker open and shoved his Maths books in his bag, the purple eyed boy did the same, all the time their fingers still woven together.

The Maths classroom was near by so they didn't need to rush like they had when they went to art. Matthew knew that Alfred had his next lesson with Arthur so he helpfully told him not to annoy Arthur too much in the next lesson; an invaluable suggestion.

"There's no point trying to get any sense into his head Matthew, absolutely no point" the Dutchman said, dragging his adorable Canadian towards their Maths room, just about making it before the door was given a final slam shut, informing people that the class had started.

The two of them rushed to their seats as they took their books out of their bags and threw them on their desks. They had textbooks, and some books to record answers and notes in. The teacher began explaining to them the same thing he explained last week; was this man getting senile? Lars decided to think up a game to pass the time (he guessed they had about half an hour until the teacher stopped babbling), he turned to look at his boyfriend who seemed engrossed in a daydream and was absentmindedly tapping his pencil on the table and humming lightly.

An idea struck Lars like lightning. Let the games begin.

He let his hand run along the outside seam of Matthew's school trousers, getting closer to a place Matthew preferred not to be touched at school. Lars let his hand go as far as Matthew would allow it before it was smacked away. Not deterred and finding the game quite fun Lars tried it again; instead of following the same path he snuck his hand under Matthew's school shirt getting up to the rib cage before again, it was swatted away. The Canadian was thinking just how lucky he was that they had long bench like desks so people couldn't really see what his lover was attempting to do, if he tried doing it with those typical single desks they would be noticed and probably badly told off. Hopefully Lars wouldn't attempt such a thing if they had single desks, but Matthew couldn't be sure.

The Dutch boy noticed that Matthew had again broken into a reverie and he could think of only one solution for it, Matthews guard was down now so it was a perfect time to execute it. He tried doing what he'd done to begin, although this time being much swifter and dipping his hands a bit lower than what would be considered orthodox for an almost childish game. Matthew screamed, very loudly, and was a scorching red colour. The teacher paused from his ramblings to assess what was going on.

"Matthew Williams is there a problem?" the teacher scolded severely, not wanting his speech on simultaneous equations to be interrupted by someone screaming like a banshee.

"I-I just feel a bit ill as all, I think I might have a bit of a fever" the Canadian bluffed, more likely to jump on a table and sing the American national anthem than tell the truth.

"Then go to the sickroom and _don't_ interrupt my lesson. Lars, you take him, and the nurse is ill today so stay and look after him please. Take your books" the teacher demanded then returned to his less-than-interesting lecture. The Dutchman was more than happy with this, missing Maths and looking after his 'ill' boyfriend, 'Score!' he thought.

Matthew gave him an elfin smile before they packed their books away and sunk out of the classroom door then linking their arms and skipping down the corridor before the teacher realised what a mistake he had made by letting two teenagers be alone in a most likely empty sickroom.

* * *

The two made it to the sickroom in a record time both of them flopping down on the flimsy bed and laughing as though they were insane, "We have… forty minutes to mess around in you know" Lars growled, crawling over to Matthew who looked more than willing to participate.

"Alright then Doctor, what do you need to do?" Matthew asked coyly causing Lars to develop a predatory grin.

"I didn't know you were into that sort of stuff Mattie" Lars purred as he ran his hand down the Canadian's spine, making him shiver.

"Are you going to finish of the game you started in Maths… Doctor" Matthew accented this last word because it seemed to have had a good effect on Lars the last time he used it.

Lars moaned in appreciation and ran his fingertips down Matthew's front, finding the role playing to be rather enjoyable for him, the fact that they were doing it at school in a room were anyone could walk in at anytime only made it better, thrilling to be exact. He slipped Matthew's blazer off his shoulders and rubbed the boy's chest, feeling the nubs beneath his school shirt, making the boy moan without hesitation. To cover up the lewd sounds flowing from his boyfriend's mouth he kissed him passionately sucking up any sounds before they could reach the open air. The position they were in made it easy for Matthew to hook his arms around Lars's back and brush his hands along the Dutchman's ass.

"Are you sure it's alright for a Doctor to be touched by a patient like that?" Lars said against the Canadian's neck before popping the top couple of buttons open leaving the Canadian's collarbone exposed.

"About as alright as it is to have the Doctor strip the patient" Matthew got out between gasps as the grey eyed boy above him bit down on his collarbone and licked it languidly. Matthew tried to bite back a moan long enough to talk to Lars, "We can't get too far," a lazy kiss to Lars's lips, "we are still at school."

"Should I take that as a challenge?" the taller boy said, undoing more buttons on Matthew's shirt and licking lazy circles along the smaller boy's chest and upper stomach.

Matthew drawled out a lethargic moan before kissing Lars again, pressing his tongue anywhere in the other boy's mouth that was free. The Dutch boy let his fingers rake through the silky golden locks of his boyfriend, loving the feel of the strands as they slipped through his fingers. Matthew did something similar, letting his fingers twirl in Lars's un-gelled hair, "Mmm, you look hot with your hair down you know" Matthew breathed, "That's a lie actually; you look hot all the time, especially when you're dripping wet like yesterday."

"I'm really enjoying finding about the things you like you know, it'll help when we get… further in our relationship" Lars grumbled, his voice so low Matthew could feel the vibrations from the Dutch boy's chest.

"What makes you think we're getting any further than this" Matthew challenged, feeling the tiniest bit rebellious when he was around Lars.

"Because if I can make you feel this good from a make-out session," the Dutchman's hand ghosted over the tent in Matthew's trousers, making the Canadian's mouth form a perfect 'o' shape, "Imagine what I could do to you when we're old enough; how good I could make you feel…"

"_Mon Dieu Lars_! I-" the Canadian had to stop as the door of the sickroom creaked open, the two boys could faintly hear a Vietnamese accent calming someone down who sounded hysterical… and Hungarian. Lars's eyes widened; he signalled Matthew to get into the bed and pull the covers over himself, which the boy did without hesitation.

Lars leaned in to be right next to Matthew's ear and whispered as quietly as he could, "Alright, we can't let anyone know what we've gotten up to, try and get your '_problem_' to go away; think about your brother in a Speedo or something" Matthew's face convulsed into one of absolute disgust and it stayed that way for roughly two minutes.

"That worked," Matthew shuddered before whispering, "It's a bit of a shame though, I thought you could've been the one to help it go away" the Canadian mumbled out seductively.

"Where do you keep getting this confidence from Mattie" Lars said biting his lip to show the effect the Canadian's words had on him. This made them both laugh, forgetting that they were trying to keep themselves secret from the girls that were also in the room. They couldn't actually see each other; the five beds in the sickroom were separated by thin curtains so the only way to tell if someone else was in the room was to listen very carefully. Matthew and Lars stayed silent after they realised the two girls had been talking very softly to each other.

"I'm so happy that Lars and Matthew got together, I was sort of worried about Matthew until Lars came, what with all his friends, and Alfred, getting boyfriends. I didn't want him to be left out" the talkative and motherly Hungarian girl said, the eavesdropping boys looked at each other and shared a short tender kiss.

"Mm-hm, but I'm worried, you do know that," the Vietnamese girl began but was cut off when the bell rang violently, alerting the boys that they should get moving to P.E., "still has a crush on Lars."

The bell, although it only rang for a short time, had completely cut off the most important part of the conversation for the two boys who looked at each other with puzzled expressions; Matthew's fading into a concerned one. Upon noticing this Lars took Matthew's lithe hand and squeezed it, "Just because some one else has a crush on me doesn't change the fact that I only love you, so please don't worry," Lars whispered, still not wanting to alert the girls of their presence, "Let's get going to P.E." he said softly, rubbing noses with Matthew. This seemed to cheer Matthew up enough to let a smile grace his features.

The boys made their way out of the sickroom with spy-like smoothness and rushed towards the P.E. lockers to get their P.E. kits. They made it just in time, finding most of their friends were doing the same. They sighed simultaneously and collected the bags of clothes. The changing rooms were adjacent to the locker room so the two boys made their way over and as soon as they stepped inside the oddly musky smelling room started taking their clothes off – Matthew more shyly, moving towards the corner of the room to change, Lars on the other hand going for the all out stripping in front of everyone method. So our poor Canadian was huddled in the corner just catching glimpses of his boyfriend throwing his clothes off in gay abundance and slipping on his kit. To give the Dutch boy credit he put on a good show of it.

Matthew awkwardly unbuttoned his already half undone shirt, courtesy of Lars, and shook it off his shoulders, revealing the thin pale body beneath. Before anyone could notice his half naked state he threw on the football shirt and got to work with his trousers, moving his hips from side to side slightly to get them off his narrow hips, "Damn, those hips don't lie" the Canadian heard from behind him, turning around to see a very happy looking Dutchman, "I honestly don't understand why you'd want to hide that cute little body of yours" the happy boy said.

"Because I look frail and thin, you don't have any problems you've got muscle and actually look normal. I look like a weak freak and that's probably what the rest of the class thinks" Matthew mumbled bitterly. Lars let out a long breathy sigh and pinned the boy into the corner.

"I really don't think you should care what they think Mattie. I think you're beautiful and that's all that matters, okay" Lars said, brushing strands of hair off the Canadian's face and brushing his hand down the boy's cheek, "You can finish changing, I'll stand guard" Lars said jokily, although he thoroughly intended to shield the boy of prying eyes.

"Thank you" Matthew said shyly, finding the words strangely comforting. The changing room was actually empty apart from the two of them, it would look rather odd to on lookers, a muscular six-foot-something boy pinning a frail skinny boy against the wall. If you consider everything that went on in this school however, it wouldn't seem odd at all.

Matthew had taken his trousers of fully and was just in his boxers and a football shirt that was the tiniest bit too baggy; it was long enough to just show the hem of his boxers. Lars, unknowing of this fact, looked down to check if his boyfriend had finished changing only to be greeted by his two favourite things combined – A half naked Matthew and something football related.

"This is so worth missing the first part of football for" Lars growled as the Canadian noticed the look Lars was giving him. It then hit him; 'missing the first part of football' they were late weren't they?

"Lars why didn't you tell us we were late?" the purple eyed boy squeaked as he hurriedly pulled his shorts on and grabbed his jumper. Lars just laughed and hugged the boy who was in a less than huggable mood. The Canadian gave him a light elbowing in the stomach to get his point across that he was annoyed.

* * *

The two made it to P.E. on time by the skin of their teeth, they literally had to do an all out Olympic sprint to the sports field, but they made it. The class had already been put in two equal teams so Lars and Matthew had to split up to make it fair. To make things worse for the class the sun had decided to show it's questionably welcome face and was making the air thick and surprisingly humid considering it was only spring.

"Alright we'll be playing a match today; we have a few too many people so we may have some people on the bench as reserves otherwise the pitch will be too crowded" the Italian P.E. teacher beamed with a goofy grin on his face. The teacher was in all honesty odd. He insisted being called 'Grandpa Rome' and had a terrible habit of affectionately hugging the students he liked, Lars being a main target because he was undeniably talented at football, "Matthew Williams," Matthew piped up at hearing his name, "I bumped into your Maths teacher on the way down and he said you had a bit of a fever in Maths. I think it'll be best if you're one of the benchwarmers for your team" Matthew nodded and made his way to the bench, sort of relieved that he didn't have to play.

The North American boy was sitting on the bench along with a fragile looking Lithuanian, a slightly camp Pole and lastly an exuberant Korean. Even so, among the conversation about scary Russians, the best colour of nail polish and how everything originated from Korea, Matthew decided he liked them. Well, maybe not like but he could tolerate them. The initial eclectic conversation faded into an almost-but-not-quite comfortable silence. Instead Matthew watched with concentration at Lars and how his long, lean legs moved when he ran and how graceful he was when he dribbled the ball weaving in and out of the other players, twisting his back in such a way that meant he could squeeze through the strong defenders with ease. The Canadian found that he loved how his boyfriend's body extended when he took a shot at goal, every muscle extending and elongating the already tall boy, his facial expression one of pure determination. It was beautiful through the purple eyes of the boy, truly beautiful.

It didn't help that the sudden onslaught of humid weather was making everyone sweat, particularly Lars who was exerting himself to his limits as always. He was sweating a fair amount, making his fringe stick to his face and his whole body glisten like the models in magazines. Matthew let himself zone out watching, half the match had passed by for all he knew but he remained fixated on the Dutchman wanting nothing more than to go up and, as Arthur would put it, 'snog the lad's brains out'. The whistle screamed at the class, meaning they had a one or two minute break until they swap goals and start the game up again.

The grey eyed boy sauntered tiredly towards Matthew before slumping inelegantly next to him giving a lazy poke to his arm and grunting; too worn out to speak. Matthew giggled and poked back before wiping some of the sweat from Lars's brow, "You know it's so annoying having my fringe down in football; it flops around everywhere" the Dutch boy whined before leaning his damp face on Matthew's shoulder.

"You still played amazingly though, you make football look so graceful it's amazing you know" the smaller boy said, affectionately stroking Lars's hair. The tired boy hummed in happiness at the compliment and at the contact. He wanted to lie there forever in that almost perfect position but alas nothing lasts forever and another sharp blow of the whistle dragged him back to reality, "Have fun" Matthew grinned. Lars wore a sheepish smile and kissed his boyfriend's forehead before jogging back to the pitch.

"Oh my God, the Dutch boy is, like, so hot and good at football, totally cool" the Polish boy, who Matthew believed was called Feliks said while he admired his nails and watched the game.

"F-Feliks you do know our friend Matthew here is dating Lars, it's a bit insensitive to say something like that around him" the stuttering Lithuanian, Toris, gently scolded. Although the two were incredibly dissimilar Toris and Feliks were a couple, one of the more renowned ones at the school to boot. Infamous would be the right word to use, it described the fame they achieved that stemmed from Feliks's many eccentricities. The main eccentric past time being cross dressing, Feliks wore the female school uniform as opposed to the male one – well, each to their own.

"You and Lars are dating? That's so cute! How come I haven't heard any, like, gossip about you two?" Feliks said directing his attention towards the shy Canadian.

"Yeah, we actually only confessed to each other last night; we're a brand new couple" Matthew smiled bashfully at the Pole who had a gleeful expression plastered on.

"Oh Toris isn't it cute!" Feliks chimed taking both of his boyfriend's hands in his own and swinging them slightly in an offbeat jig, "But Toris we won't be the, like, cutest couple at the school anymore" Feliks bawled dramatically as he fell into Toris's arms.

Matthew laughed at the Polish boy's antics and glanced over at the Korean boy, who went by the name of Im Yong Soo, waved his arms around and happily proclaimed, "Romance originated in Korea da-ze!" before going back to being quiet, yet continuing to lightly wave his arms in happiness at just thinking about his home country, of which he was very proud of.

The silence took over again, the only interaction between the boys was Feliks occasionally sending perverted grins to Matthew who was zoned out again as he watched his boyfriend play with a slacked jaw. The second half of the game turned out to be much more aggressive. Lars, who everyone thought was working beyond his limits in the first half, had gone into an all out football mode. The amount of skill that he used as he played was on par with professionals. Even Matthew who wasn't much of a football person could tell the standard of play from his boyfriend was phenomenal.

The whistle blew to signify the end of the lesson, Matthew blinking fiercely to re-adjust his eyes after having them become unfocused as he watched the match. It was a good match with Lars's team winning five to two overall. Lars dragged himself over to Matthew and collapsed over him, his chest in Matthew's lap which prevented him from standing, "Lars get up, you're making my legs wet; you're so sweaty!" Matthew uncharacteristically whined.

"One minute" Lars mumbled getting comfortable in the position and groaning when Matthew rolled him off his lap and onto the floor, "What was that for?" Lars said with his Dutch accent being far more noticeable when he was tired and worn out.

"We need to go get changed. You'll feel horrible if you stay in your sweaty kit for too long" Matthew reasoned, helping the Dutchman off the floor and letting the taller boy lean on him. The boy grunted and started walking back towards the changing rooms with his Canadian behind him.

"I need to wash my face off before I get changed it feels disgusting" Lars mused wiping the back of his hand on his forehead and flipping off the excess moisture.

"Attractive" Matthew said sarcastically, although really he didn't find it that bad at all, his boyfriend was a flushed red colour, his skin gleaming and he was panting quite heavily. Seductiveness at its best.

"I'm just going to go to the toilets for a second to chuck some water on me face – I'll see you in the changing rooms" Lars smiled and ruffled his boyfriend's hair before shouldering the bathroom door open and leisurely making his way to the sink and twisting on the cold tap and throwing the water at his face letting it drip down his neck and chest as well. When he looked up in the mirror he could see someone behind him, he didn't scream because he knew who it was.

"Oh hey-" Lars began casually but was cut off the boy pushing him into the bathroom stall and locking the door. Lars head collided with the back wall with great force that was likely to leave a bruise, "Fuck, what the hell-" again the Dutch teen was cut off, this time by a pale hand tightly covering his mouth. His frightened grey eyes stared up at familiar calm dark brown eyes.

"So you and the boy Matthew are together now, he has that coloured bruise on his neck," a broken slur of English was finally uttered from the boy in power, "well that isn't a very good situation for me because…" a long shuddering breath was let out from the brown eyed brown haired boy before he moved his petal pink lips to Lars's ear.

"_Aishiteru Lars_."

* * *

Author's note;

Jesus Christ it's finally done, this mammoth of a chapter is done! *Faints* And what's this? A cliffhanger. *Trollface* Oh Kiku you scary boy.

Oh, some apologies, to start with sorry about the failed French, it doesn't flow very well to be honest, but I'm too lazy to change it. Secondly, about how late this chapter is, it took longer to write because it's long to make up for the shorter chapter last time. Also I think my writing style has changed a bit in this chapter, I don't know whether it's just me but... meh.

Also, out of curiosity why did only one person review the last chapter? *Sob* (Thank-you to the one person who did, you gave me motivation to write _this_ chapter! :D ) I'm not going to beg for reviews but they are useful motivational tools. :P

I'm just going to continue my rambling by saying, this story is very popular among Canadians. About three out of four times I get a story alert, review or whatever the person is Canadian; it makes me laugh. XD

I'm going to shut up now. :) Until next time! :D


	5. Chapter 5

The first thing Lars thought when he woke up in the medical room was, 'Fuck'. He felt like he'd just woken up from a night of heavy drinking; his head was pounding and he had no memory of how he'd got to where he was now. He had some satisfaction in seeing his boyfriend looking worried as he stared off into the distance, "Mornin'" the Dutch boy mumbled out, finding he was too fatigued to speak properly.

The Canadian snapped out of his daze and practically threw his lips onto Lars', "Oh thank God you're up we were so worried eh!" he whimpered out, hugging the Dutchman for all it was worth.

The Dutchman's head was reeling from the onslaught of affection from his boyfriend and moaned in displeasure. As much as he loved Matthew he could've chosen a better time to hug him so violently, "What do you mean 'we'? What the hell happened?" the boy snapped sounding far more annoyed than he thought he sounded and it made the Canadian flinch.

"I-I'm sorry eh…" the Canadian sunk back down to the chair and looked down at the floor as though it was actually interesting. Lars had to admit that made him feel very, very guilty. Once he could remember how to move his hand he slunk it over to Matthew's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze to show he wasn't angry.

He groaned as a wave of pain crashed over his head; he honestly didn't understand how his head hurt so badly, "You didn't explain to me what happened" Lars mumbled again, yet again finding himself too tired to even try being coherent.

"Sorry, I got scared when you yelled at me," the smaller boy blushed, really knowing how to make the taller boy feel in the wrong, "but if you want to know what happened Kiku found you in a bathroom stall after you went to wash your face off after P.E., apparently you were unconscious."

Lars sat and pondered that for a second, "I actually sort of remember some of it. It's really hazy though," the boy's head decided to exude inhumane amounts of pain again making him flinch, "I remember a slamming sound and then my head hurting like a bitch, than waking up here."

Matthew laughed and stroked Lars' hair, trying to avoid the bruise on the back of his head. He left his hand to rest for a minute atop the Dutch boy's fringe, "The teacher Kiku spoke to when he found you said we could stay here until the end of school if we need to. If you could get up by fifth it'd be better; it's only English so it's not that bad…" the Canadian trailed off when he noticed Lars' best 'don't-give-me-this-bullshit' expression.

"English is not that bad? The only thing that could make that lesson worse was if it was taught by the devil" the Dutchman frankly exclaimed. His boyfriend chuckled nervously as he remembered Lars' utter hatred for their English lessons. It wasn't as though the Dutch boy hated what they were taught, it was just that he hated who he was surrounded by when he was being taught. He had an arguing American and English couple to his left, the overtly happy Spaniard to his right, his Prussian friend behind him and a French pervert in front of him. His beloved Canadian was seated all the way across the classroom. With the 'Bad Touch Trio' surrounding him with inhumane amounts of stupidity and the couple next to him gave him the worst migraines he'd ever experienced. English lessons weren't fun for him to put it simply.

"I don't want anymore of a headache then I've already got. Can we skip please?" the Dutch boy said seriously before adding puppy-dog eyes on for the last question. It proved just how serious he was about missing the last lesson. Matthew was easily swayed by cute expressions but something about seeing his usually scowling or smirking boyfriend with a childish pout and doe eyes made him want to laugh. The Canadian tried as hard as he could to hold back the giggles but the more he looked at the boy's face the harder it was becoming. He took a deep breath and tried to look away only to look back to see an even more exaggerated expression. It would take a ridiculous amount of self control to not laugh at it.

"Oh God Lars, fine we'll skip fifth if you want to so bad," Matthew said trying to get his breathing together after laughing so hard, "just get that expression off your face!" the boy said finally calming down as his boyfriend's face went from childish to smug in the blink of an eye.

"If that's all it takes for you to swing your decision in my favour I should use that technique more often" the tall boy growled with a growing arrogant smirk. Trying to be cute he tried to lean up and kiss Matthew, only to flop back on the bed with another fit of pain from his head caused by the movement.

"Don't try and be affectionate if you're not up to it" Matthew said smiling despairingly at Lars. The taller boy groaned and held his arms up in a 'hug-me' gesture that the smaller teen was happy to give in to. Matthew got up from his chair and crawled onto the bed then gently slotted himself into the larger boy's arms and rested his head on the Dutchman's chest. The Canadian revelled in his boyfriend's soft breathing and beating heart then lent up for a kiss. The smaller teen noted that Lars' lips tasted different than they had before but he decided not to mention it thinking it probably wasn't anything important.

The kiss broke away when Lars' head injury decided to rear its ugly head again; unluckily for the Dutchman it was the most painful episode yet. He threw his head back on the flimsy pillow and cried out in pain with his Canadian looking on with concern. The fit of pain ended with the Dutch boy squeezing his eyes shut and trying to find Matthew's hand with his own to help him calm down, "No more kissing, it hurts" Lars groaned writhing slightly on the bed throwing Matthew off slightly.

"Do you want to just sleep for the next hour or so? I'm sure it'll make you feel better" Matthew assured stroking the Dutch teen's cheek. And affirmative grunt came from the boy and so the Canadian rested back down onto the toned chest and draped a muscular arm over himself and settled down to sleep as well. The taller boy smiled at this and shuffled to get the Canadian boy to move into him more, which he did without hesitation. The two giggled before closing their eyes and sleeping.

They slept for about half an hour or so until the bell rand to signify the end of fourth period, Matthew had woken up and Lars was in a dazed half awake and half asleep state, "Turn the alarm off Mum I want to sleep" the Dutch boy grumbled half-heartedly making the other boy laugh loudly. The Canadian decided that he shouldn't laugh too loudly otherwise he might wake up his boyfriend more than the bell already had so he hid his laughter by burying his face into the Dutchman's chest. The laughing Canadian fell asleep again, making his breathing on par with Lars'.

The second bell was more successful in rousing the two boys from their romantic slumber. The smaller boy that was curled up in the others arms came to first poking the muscular arm surrounding him lazily until he got a response. The response was a twitch of the arm and then the sound of snoring; not quite what the boy wanted. He resorted to lightly shaking the other's shoulders to try and get him up. It was a bit more successful in the fact it got the Dutch boy to groan out something about wanting ten more minutes sleep.

"Lars it's the end of school. You need to get up so we can get home, okay?" Matthew said with the sleep still evident in his voice. The Dutch boy whined slightly before sitting up and finding that his head didn't hurt nearly as much as he'd thought it would; he presumed that the long nap must've helped.

"Do I have to get changed and get my stuff first?" the Dutch boy said as he cautiously stretched and leant his head on the boy who was sitting cross legged in front of him. The smaller boy laughed and hugged him as he shook his head and produced his school bag and his P.E. bag with his school uniform inside it. The boy hummed happily into the Canadian's shoulder before slinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing up along with his small boyfriend.

"You ready to leave?" Matthew chirped having woken up faster than Lars did. The Dutch teen grunted and he threaded his fingers through the delicate fingers of his boyfriend. They threw the sterile white sick room curtains open and walked out of the room and through the corridors. The sun was low in the sky and cast amber light across the corridor giving the couple a peachy glow. The Canadian smiled as he noticed that in their reflection on the windows. He also noticed that he had something on his neck. He tried rubbing it off to see if it was dirt or something like that although it was to no avail. It gradually dawned on him what it was and he turned to give an evil stare to Lars.

"Why do I have a hickey on my neck?" the Canadian asked in a saccharine voice that frightened Lars slightly. The Dutchman had completely forgotten about that and so he'd also completely forgotten the excuse he had prepared.

"It shows he owns you now Birdie!" Gilbert said as he approached the two from behind. His answer, although it was loud, seemed to go unnoticed as Matthew continued to glare at Lars and the Dutch boy could do nothing but stare back. The Prussian teen, finally noticing the tension, decided to say something, "Mattie are you ok-" he was cut off by an extremely annoyed sounding Canadian.

"I've gone the whole day with a hickey the size of my fist on my neck and you didn't tell me!" Matthew yelled breaking the staring contest with Lars. Said Dutch boy flinched violently and backed up into the lockers behind him. Gilbert stood there with his mouth agape; he'd never seen the usually quiet boy so angry.

"I-I thought you wouldn't mind" Lars uncharacteristically stuttered as his back went full up against the locker with the small Canadian slowly approaching him. All heads in the corridor had turned to the pair and silence engulfed them all.

"You think I wouldn't mind being embarrassed in front of the whole entire school all day? You don't know me at all eh!" Matthew wailed with tears in his eyes. The Dutch boy tried to lift his hand up to wipe the tears away but Matthew swatted the hand away much to the boy's surprise, "I hate you Lars" the Canadian spat before he ran down the corridor. The students parted for him as he strode away leaving Lars on the verge of tears with his back still against the lockers.

"Lars, are you alright?" Gilbert gingerly asked as the corridor broke out into whispers and people continued to gather books and leave. The Dutch boy swallowed deeply and shook his head putting his head in his hands.

"I fucked it up one day in Gilbert," the Dutchman began as he shook his head and looked at the other, "you know how long I've liked him for. I finally got him, he liked me back. Then I fuck it up" the Dutch teen whacked his hand against the locker and then lent his head on it.

"Lars look it's fine-" the Prussian began reasoning but he was cut off again when the Dutch boy put his hand out, silently telling him to stop talking. The boy strode off pushing past all the people in the corridor bumping shoulders with a few people, but in the sort of mood he was in no one wanted to tell him off for it.

Lars got to the entrance, took a deep breath and readied himself for the walk home. As he walked down the cold grey expanse of concrete he couldn't help but think how stupid he was. He knew that Matthew hated to be embarrassed and yet he pulled something stupid like that and messed it all up less than a day into their relationship. He felt like screaming in frustration but instead he sighed and then sighed again louder as he noticed that rain drops were falling onto him. The raindrops began mixing with tears that the Dutch boy didn't even know he was shedding.

Pathetic fallacy was quite possibly the only thing that could've made the teen's mood worse and yet it just happened to happen. The rain drops chilled him to the bone and made his hairs stand up on end. He couldn't wait to get home and have a cup of something warm. He wondered what Matthew was doing. Then it painfully occurred to him that the Canadian didn't have the key to his house and he'd locked the porch before he'd left. So this meant that his boyfriend was sitting somewhere in the rain, probably crying and shaking with the cold. Well fuck. That set the Dutch boy's legs off in motion, all that football practice coming into proper use as he set off in the direction of his house. He even ignored the thumping pain at the back of his head to get to where he knew he needed to be.

The house came into sight along with a blonde head of hair and a crumpled body. Without a doubt about who it was Lars ran even faster. The gravelled path the lead up to his front door had never seemed so long. The Dutch boy collapsed next to the curled up, wet boy and pulled him in close. Luckily he didn't receive any complaints from this so he pulled the boy's body in closer. Against what the Dutchman thought would happen the Canadian slipped his arms around Lars' back and hugged him back. The bawling was soaked up by the Dutch teen's shirt as he held the smaller boy. Even though Lars hated the rain he wanted to stay as they were now even at the expense of getting soaked through and through.

The taller teen lent his head back and for once enjoyed the feeling of rain rushing down his face. He breathed out leaving a cloud of condensation floating in the air. He then buried his face into the damp hair of his friend, boyfriend? It didn't matter anymore to Lars. An odd rumbling was felt I his chest and he looked down to find that Matthew was trying to talk to him, "What was that Mattie?" the Dutch boy said softly as not to ruin the mood.

"I'm sorry" the Canadian boy whispered with his eyes bloodshot and his cheeks flushed, "I don't hate you, I'm sorry!" the frantic boy exclaimed trying to throw himself back into the embrace. Lars tried to say something but words couldn't describe his relief at what the boy had just said.

"Why are you the one saying sorry?" the taller teen soothed breathing into the golden locks of the boy who apparently didn't hate him anymore. The other boy tried to explain how it was his own fault through his hurried tears but it ended up as incomprehensible garbling. To quiet the boy down Lars tried to explain why he did it, "I'm the one who should be saying sorry," he kissed the Canadian on the top of his head, "I thought it'd be cute and that you wouldn't mind. Sometimes I forget that you get nervous about getting embarrassed in public because you don't really care when you're with me."

"I know, even I forget I'm normally shy when I'm with you" Matthew joked. He was a bit louder than normal as the rain had started to pelt down drowning out their voices with a steady pitter-patter. Lars was wondering whether all this meant that he was forgiven. "Yes, this means I forgive you" the Canadian said which caused the Dutchman to question whether his boyfriend was psychic. "No I'm not psychic. You're just really easy to read."

"Have you got mind reading powers from being around Arthur? Apparently it can happen; he told me" Lars joked as he kept pulling the boy in even closer, as though it was even possible with the two boys flush up against each other. Then it struck the Dutchman. The two boys had shared their first kiss as a couple: that could be ticked of the list easily. But had they had a kiss in the rain? Not yet, and this seemed just about the right time to rectify that. Slipping his fingers to the back of the Canadian's head the Dutch teen lifted it so purple eyes were staring up at him. The Dutchman gently bent forward and the two pairs of lips brushed together in a movie-style kiss. They found out the hard way that as cute and romantic a kiss in the rain starts out as, when your lips turn blue and go numb the romanticism of it all is slightly ruined.

"Are you happy now you got your kiss?" the Canadian said through chattering teeth. Lars nodded courteously and stood up, taking his boyfriend up with him. He rifled around his bag to produce a set of house keys with a clog key-ring. It never failed to make the purple eyed boy laugh. The Dutch teen rolled his eyes and opened the porch and took off his soaking trainers then watched as the Canadian clumsily took of his own.

Lars opened the main door and let his boyfriend in with himself swiftly following. Lars' first priority was to get his sopping wet football kit off so with nary a foot through the door he started to throw his kit off. All the items of clothing hit the floor with a satisfying squelch. Obviously Matthew stared as the clothes went flying off but it took him a good few flying garments to realise he should probably stop the Dutch boy.

"Lars I think you should probably get changed up-" the Canadian suggested, he stopped in the middle though as he realized that apparently the Dutch teen decided that he was going to take his boxers off too. Matthew didn't even know his jaw could drop so far as his boyfriend turned to look at him wearing only football socks and shin pads.

"Huh, what's wrong Mattie you look a bit pale" the Dutchman said as though walking around naked was normal. Matthew presumed it probably was normal when he wasn't around; all of a sudden the Canadian felt bad for Lars' parents.

"I'm fine but could you do me a favour," the small teen said as he bent towards Lars' ear cutely, "get some underwear on!" he suddenly yelled causing the other to jump back a bit. A smug smirk took over Matthew's face and he stared at Lars until he begrudgingly went upstairs with Matthew following behind trying very hard to not look at his boyfriend's ass. Well trying meant something didn't it?

They got into Lars' room and after a minute or so of Matthew convincing Lars that although he was his boyfriend, it didn't give him the right to not wear underwear around the house. The Dutchman decided that wearing his boxers was a small price to pay for not having another argument with the boy. Of course he'd told the Canadian boy that to try and score favour with him and it seemed to work.

The two got changed into their pyjamas early again because for a second evening running they had practically nothing to do. So they did what would seem logical to any teenager; they would make a blanket fort. "Lars do you have anymore blankets we need more on the left side" Matthew yelled from under the starting of their blanket fort which consisted of about three blankets stretched across part of the living room. The sofas on either side of the room were used as supports.

"Yep, I've got some pillows as well so brace yourself" Lars shouted as he ran downstairs a bit too excitedly for a teenage boy who, pretty childishly, was building a blanket fort. The Canadian grinned as he saw the boy armed with a stack of pillows and about three or four more sheets and blankets. Without warning the Dutchman released an avalanche of pillows and sheets on top of the Canadian's head which effectively buried him. After a good wrestling with one of the sheets, much to Lars's amusement, Matthew surfaced looking very angry and armed with a pillow.

Matthew face darkened into a scowl as he stood up and lifted the pillow above his head. Lars took this as a warning – this was war now. The Dutchman lunged for the cushion on the sofa and used it to shield his face as Matthew playfully hit him around the head with his fluffy weapon. The Dutch teen fell backwards so he was sprawled across the sofa and was at the full mercy of his boyfriend.

"This is revenge for the hickey Lars" Matthew said as he fluffed up his cushion and crawled atop of Lars and lightly hit him anywhere that was unguarded. The two of them laughed madly as they wrestled and hit each other. They only stop occasionally when the Dutch boy hit his already bruised head. The two of them had somehow rolled off the sofa and where now wrestling on the floor. Their legs were tangling together and pillows and cushions were being thrown in all directions. At one point one of the pair had thrown a blanket instead of a cushion causing the two of them to be submerged by the white expanse of cotton.

The two were out of breath because of their laughing and wrestling and lay under the white sheet and stared at each other's flushed red faces and chuckled lightly. Lars took the initiative to move closer to the smaller boy and wrap his arms around his body. The Canadian rested his head in Lars' chest and breathed in the scent of his boyfriend, it smelt indescribable with the only smells Matthew really detecting being weed and 'teenage boy'. It was definitely Lars' smell that was for sure.

Matthew's mouth slid up into a smile and it didn't do unnoticed by the taller boy who still had him in his arms, "What're you so happy about my dearest Canadian?" the Dutchman said as he pulled the boy in closer.

"I'm happy because I'm with you," the Canadian said as he nestled himself even further into the other's pyjama top, "I'm still annoyed that we argued though" Matthew added with a pout. Lars went over to kiss the boys extremely kissable lips but he pulled back when he started giggling again, which resulted in Matthew pouting more which then resulted in Lars laughing more and so forth until it got to a point when it was a bit ridiculous.

The Dutch boy's face became more serious as he spoke again, "That was a one off thing; we're not going to argue again alright?" he asked as he set a kiss on the boys golden locks.

"Yeah but…" the Canadian began but was stopped by Lars' frowning face. The smaller boy tried to start again but was stopped by the Dutchman kissing him furiously on the lips.

Lars pulled away smirking as he tilted towards Matthew's ear, "That was a rhetorical question you know" he muttered against the other's skin making the smaller boy shiver. Liking the reaction he was getting the Dutch teen trailed his mouth down his Canadian's neck and began nibbling lightly then faintly kissing the area chastely.

"We forgot about building the fort you know," the Canadian kissed the taller boy's neck and licked it idly, "Can we finish building it now though; we can continue _this _when we've finished building it" the purple eyed boy growled with a hint of seductiveness in his voice.

The older boy growled back and tried to steal a kiss from the boy but the opportunity was stolen from him as the golden haired boy threw the blanket off them exposing them to the faint evening light that had begun to peak through the clouds. Matthew stood up and straightened himself out a bit, trying to pat the creases out of his pyjama bottoms and sorting out the collar of his baggy white night shirt. The smaller teen nudged his head towards the blankets silently implying that Lars should pick them up and help him rebuild their now slightly skewed fort. They started by rebuilding the slanted and collapsed roof then adding a floor by using one of the thicker blankets for comfort. They strengthened the structure by adding pillars of cushions at the entrance and stacking them in places where the roof tended to sag and within about fifteen minutes they had an envy inducing fort that although they wouldn't admit it to anyone else, they were pretty darn proud of.

"You know what, I'm feeling lazy tonight. I think we'll just order take-out or something and eat in this glorious piece of architecture" the taller boy stated as he stared proudly at the warm nest of blankets. His grin only widened when his boyfriend popped his head out of the entrance and gave a very American thumbs-up.

"Sounds good, what are we going to order?" Matthew queried as he crawled his way out of the fort a bit further, revealing more of his body. Lars shrugged and walked over to where the boy was half in and half out of the tent.

"Whatever you want is fine with me" the boy smiled as he crouched down to lean his forehead on the other's head. That's one thing that Matthew adored about his friend turned boyfriend, the cute little ways of showing his affection. Obviously it was more obvious now they were a couple but even a day ago when they were friends the warm hugs that he gave him when he was down was one thing he could always count on the Dutch boy for.

"You're quite cute beneath your cold hard exterior aren't you?" Matthew teased as his hand slipped across the other's chest lazily feeling the firm muscles. Lars raised an eyebrow and chuckled slightly before kissing the Canadian's nose.

"I'm like a big cuddly grizzly bear" Lars beamed cutely as he growled that making his boyfriend want to kiss him extremely badly. As he leant forward to try and capture the taller boys lips said tall boy pulled away and pointed to the fort, subtly suggesting that they should go inside.

The Canadian smirked and tilted so far forward that his and Lars' lips were barely a millimetre apart, "I'm not kissing you properly now until you order food. We'll need the energy believe me" Matthew ordered before he planted a quick kiss on Lars' lips and walking away to get the phone for his boyfriend to order something.

The Dutchman watched on with glee as his boyfriend strutted out of the room, because he really liked the view he was getting. Now Lars thought about it he was pretty tired as well; head injuries, sprinting and arguments all thrown together in a short space of time can throw off even the best of us.

The Dutchman was thrown back to planet earth when he felt an object fall into his lap which when he looked down he saw it was a phone. When he looked up he saw his boyfriend giving him a particularly pleading look, "Please order food I'm really hungry now" Matthew said as he kept staring at Lars.

"Do you know the numbers of any good take-away places?" Lars asked because he knew for sure that he himself knew absolutely none. Matthew gave him a blunt 'of course I do' look and signed for the Dutch teen to give him the phone.

"Sometimes you forget that I have Alfred as a brother don't you? I mean with him as a brother I know the numbers of all the take-outs in this town" Matthew semi-joked as he punched in the number for Chinese food.

Matthew immediately recognised the voice on the other end of the line. It was Yao the Chinese boy in their year that had a very distinctive style of speech that somehow results in him adding 'aru' to the end of most of his sentences. Before Matthew could actually try and place an order or greet his friend he had to wait for the multi-lingual yelling from Yao to stop.

"_Ni hao! _This is 'The Blue Dragon' would you like to place an order aru?" the energetic Chinese boy on the over end of the line chimed.

"Hello Yao, it's Matthew speaking. Can I just order what I would usually order?" the Canadian said, he didn't get a reply immediately but heard what he presumed was his and his brothers standard order being yelled out in Chinese, "Oh, Yao! I need it sent to a different address though" the Canadian hastily added.

"Where do you need it to be delivered to then aru?" the Chinese boy asked as he took a break from what sounded like a shouting match, because he was generally curious as to where it needed to be and why it needed to be there and not at the usual address.

"Just across the street from my house, I'm staying with my…" the boy was debating about how he should refer to Lars as he didn't know whether Yao knew about them, it was a pretty slim chance that he didn't know considering what had happened today, but still, "…boyfriend, you know Lars the Dutch boy?" the Canadian continued throwing caution to the wind.

"Oh I heard you two got together from Kiku, congratulations!" the Chinese boy exclaimed. Matthew was relieved. Although both his town and school were very liberal in general there were a few people who didn't have quite the same left wing views. Yao was one of those people who even though they were loud and quite opinionated on some things they kept very quiet about others.

"So when do you think the order will arrive?" Matthew said, trying to avert the conversation to a closure after looking down and seeing a slightly bored Lars lolling around the entrance their fort.

"About an hour or so I'm afraid aru! It's a busy time for us and the order's quite big you know aru" Yao admitted.

"That's fine. Thank you Yao!" Matthew said as he put the phone down. It then dawned on him that it was probably a bit rude to hang up when the other person hadn't said goodbye yet but he didn't want Lars to continue on in his bored state.

"Can we go in our fort now?" Matthew asked in a sweet voice that he knew Lars couldn't resist, not that he would want to anyway. The two of them somehow got their way into the small den and crunched up next to each other. The fort looked much bigger on the outside than it actually was on the inside, but the two boys didn't really mind that much.

"Hey Lars, who do you think has a crush on you? You know, the girls were talking about it in the medical room today" the Canadian said as he was still trying to shift into a comfortable position. Lars knew that at some point his boyfriend would end up leaning on him so he cut out the middleman and pulled the boy down so that the Canadian's back was resting on his chest.

"Should I start listing all the people it could be?" the Dutchman asked with complete seriousness he cracked his knuckles and continued, "Well to start with it could be…"

Matthew started laughing at how self assured Lars was; the boy had enough confidence for the two of them surely. The Canadian realised that as he was thinking his boyfriend was still listing out the names of pretty much all the boys at their school. Now of course Lars was attractive but obviously not every boy at the school was crushing on him so the Canadian decided to narrow down the possibilities. First he decided to cross off anyone on his mental list that was in a relationship. There went a good half of the people that could possibly have a crush on Lars. Next Matthew thought about the likelihood of it being from the close knit 'Asian group' as it was the Vietnamese girl who had said it so maybe he could use that to narrow down his choices. So now he was left with only a few people. He decided to exclude the people who he knew had crushes on over people and that left only one.

"Kiku" Matthew stated aloud as he came to the conclusion that he was probably the Dutchman's secret admirer. The smaller boy turned around too see his boyfriends face looking puzzled, "I worked it out and I've decided that the most likely person to have a crush on you is Kiku" the boy explained.

"Now that just wouldn't work. I mean I thought our height difference was awkward, can you imagine what it'd be like with me with him?" Lars said looking at his boyfriend with a jokey concerned look.

"You mean you can't imagine him leaning up to your ear and whispering, '_Aishiteru Lars_' to you?" Matthew said as he lent in to act out what he was saying.

"Whoa, Déjà vu!" Lars said as he threw his hands onto his head thinking where he'd heard Kiku say that or whether he'd even heard him say it at all. His eyes widened and his hands clasped across his mouth as he suddenly remembered everything from before the point where he guessed he passed out in the bathrooms. He had a memory of the Japanese boy kissing him. The Japanese boy had kissed him on the lips and told him he loved him.

His day just wasn't getting any better was it?

* * *

_**Very Important Author's Note;**_

This chapter took far too long to write it has so many mistakes it's rushed and it's short. All in all it's a bit shit. I'm sorry. URGH. The Author's note is important this time because I'm giving up on writing my two stories (at least for now). Writing them isn't fun at all for me anymore and it's become a bit of a chore and I didn't intend for it to be like that. I had actually gotten over the problems with my writing being a bit of a chore but about halfway through this chapter and then I sort of got 'Grammar Nazi' review(s). Obviously if someone is willing to spend time and sit there and then type out such (a) long winded review(s) about the mistake I've made I'm obviously not that good of an author yet. Oh well. (I'm just going to say to the person who did write the long winded reviews; I did _not_ find them helpful, no offense. You just came off as being extremely rude more than anything.)

I don't want to think I've given up on writing but I'll put it this way; if I ever do pick up on these stories again it will be in a _long_ time, possibly a few (maybe two or so) months. I want to improve my writing a bit if I'm going to be honest. I had so many ideas for this story and 'Faith in Strangers not in Love' but then after I realised I hated writing them I lost any ideas I had. They might come back to me, they might not; I'll see.

So I'm _really_ sorry if you actually enjoyed reading these stories but I'll probably scream if I have to write one more chapter of either of them hopefully I'll get over and and I pray this is just some sort of an extreme writer's block but I can't guarantee _anything_.

(Side note: This chapter is barely proofread so I'm sorry about all the mistakes you'll probably find.)


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